


To Seize the Moment

by AceQueenKing



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Honeymoon, Las Vegas Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-21 05:52:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2457233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to a cultural miscommunication, Shepard and Garrus wind up proposing to one another. To both their surprise, neither of them wants to take it back, and neither wants to wait.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: The Best of Intentions

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on the Mass Effect Kink meme. This version has been updated to be cleaner, more canon-compliant and extra shiny.

Shepard couldn’t enjoy the Citadel stops anymore.  
  
Every time she stopped on the Citadel, she found herself angry at the people around her.

For example, you would hardly think they were in a war, fighting for their sheer survival, judging by the way the turian in front of her struggled over a damn drink. How could _anyone’s_ biggest problem be choosing which flavor of Tupari to get? The were people dying every second across the galaxy. _Fragum_ Tupari or _Pepon_ Tupari was not a dilemna for the ages.  
  
Hell, the war was even at the Citadel's gates now. Refugees were pouring into the docks from everywhere – a constant reminder of the destruction of the galaxy, if only the citizens of the Citadel bothered to look. There were so many beings struggling just to survive another day. They were the lucky ones - there were so many more who were dead or, worse, had been modified by the Reapers.   

Of course, none of that seemed to affect the turian ahead of her.  
  
Unbelievable.  
  
It didn’t sit right with her, but she already had too many battles to fight, so she did the only thing she could: she left.  
  
She found herself, as always, at the docks. The docks had been, more or less, converted into a new, shambling ward. The poor, the hungry, the weak - all were waiting for word from home that she knew would never come.  
  
She did what she could for them, but it was never enough.  
  
And she didn’t need to look at the heartbreaking memorial wall to understand that this was far from the safety net most expected to find.  
  
Most of the Citadel news crews refused to focus on the new population boom, choosing instead to report on the Council’s latest doings. This was an insult to everyone, since the Council was doing damn near nothing.  
  
But it was hard to blame them. Even most of her crew avoided the dock camps whenever possible. She understood why.  
  
The only exceptions were James and Garrus. Both suffered from survivor’s guilt and knew the pain that came from being the last one on the line. Garrus  spent the majority of his time on the docks organizing supplies and running logistics for the Hierarchy. James came by to cheer the Alliance refugees every time they docked. As part of his candy stripper routine, he purposely lost his shirt every time some of the refugees convinced him to play Skyllian Five.  
  
At least she hoped it was purposefully.  
  
If not, she’d need to convince him to sit in when Ken and Gabby finally sat down for another game with her.  
  
She saw James at the poker table as she entered the docks. She nodded, and received a small smirk in response. That simple exchange told her all she needed to know. Their relationship was as simple as that.  
  
Then she saw Garrus, with whom _nothing_ was ever simple but _everything_ was worth the effort. His eyes were on her in an instant and he was not content to simply smirk at her.  
  
“Shepard, good to see you.” he said, before taking a step closer to her and declaring his heart. The words he said were “I missed you” but what he meant was _I needed you._  
  
And he did need her, she could see it by the want in his eyes, the hunger in them for her, for them, for something going very _right_ in the midst of a universe made up of a million wrongs. It almost frightened her how much she needed him, too.  
  
Being caged on Earth had bothered her, not only for the loss of her freedom but for the loss of _him_. She had hated it. She was not a helpless damsel in any moldy old book. She was Commander God Damn Shepard, and she relied on no man.  
  
But she sure as hell missed him.  
  
Now that he was here and they were together, she vowed she’d never give up fighting. Not while there was still a Garrus. Not while he was her One Woman Turian. Not while he was watching her six in that combination of loyalty and badassery that was so very _Garrus_ that it defied any other description.  
  
She squeezed his hand and his mandibles fluttered.  
  
“There’s still more dead than wounded, but casualty rates have dropped to 60% now that we’ve got the Krogan on our side.” He hummed. “Not good news, but better bad news, I guess.”  
  
Her heart fluttered as he told her the progress report from the hierarchy.  
  
She loved him. And even if he hadn’t said the words yet, judging by the look in his eyes, he felt the same way.  
  
Hell, she felt how much he loved her every time he followed her without question, every time he looked at the overwhelming odds against them and said _why the hell not_. He was, simply, the spark to her flame.  
  
She’d have burned herself out long ago if Garrus didn’t keep her going.  
  
Without him, she didn’t think she’d be able to make it through this war. She suspected that, too, was mutual. She could see it weighing him down here on the docks, where he spent all his spare time organizing the living they didn’t have room for and counting the almost impossibly high number of dead crowding their morgues.  
  
He was always good at logistics.  
  
“If we get many more casualties coming in, I don’t know where we’re going to put them. We’ve already got nearly all the Volus docks converted into temporary morgues now,” he said.  
  
…But the logistics here were overwhelming.  
  
There were so many dead, and even with things between them going so very, very _right_ , she saw the costs of that body count in those sharp eyes. He was worried. Very worried. She wanted to comfort him, hold him tight in her arms the way she did in their bed, but turians, even bad ones, were conservative about public displays of affection. She’d wanted to jump into his arms on Manae, but had settled for a handshake.  
  
She didn’t mind. Theirs was a private language of touch, one that was theirs and only theirs; a chorus of _I love yous_ written in every stroke and nip and touch. He may only have held her hand as they walked through the Presidium corridors, but she’d kissed him on the rooftops when no-one was looking. She’d mapped out every bit of his face with caresses in a sky-car parked on the edge of paradise. In their private space, she could take off the Command Shepard mask and simply be _his_ and he could be _hers_.  
  
That kind of intimacy didn’t need an audience to feel real.  
  
“The Alliance has been looking into granting us some space but…You’ve got a lot of dead, too.” He sighed and turned away from her. His desire to help was almost palpable, but she knew how little there was that he could do.  
  
That any of them could do.  
  
And so did he.  
  
His shoulders were hunched and tight. She wasn’t fluent in the rich language of Turian sub-vocals, but she knew from the slight hitch in his tone that he was frustrated.  
  
Well, she couldn’t stop people from dying, but she could remind him she intended to keep on living.  
  
She drew close to him and slowly placed her hand on his waist for a few moments. She kept the touch light; gentle and short. She didn’t lean into him and tuck her chin into his shoulder, like she would later, in their bed. Instead, she pressed just enough so that he could feel it through the armor.  
  
Pressed just hard enough to remind him that she was here and that they were both so very _alive_.  
  
Garrus stilled under her hand and immediately stopped talking. She wondered why for a second, then heard an older turian female make a strange clucking noise at them. _Racist_ , she thought, and gave the elderly turian her best Commander God Damn Shepard glare. When she glanced back to Garrus, he was staring at her with an odd combination of heat and embarrassment. His mandibles were fluttering in a way that would be cute if it wasn’t Garrus for _I am very nervous_ right now.  
  
“Are….Are you sure about this, Shepard?” he said. “I mean, I’m a turian and you’re…we’re…” He shook his head, started again. “I mean, people will talk…” He scratched his cheek, and she knew that meant _I don’t know what to do_. She realized, with some surprise, that he was worried about her reputation.  
  
The universe was going to hell and her boyfriend was worried about _gossip_. Garrus Vakarian was, at times, as infuriating as he was adorable, and that this was definitely one of those times.  
  
“So let them talk.” She put her hand in his to silence his doubts. “You and I are alive and…and I think we both need to savor that, right now.”  
  
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Seize the moment, isn’t that the human phrase?” He said, and to her surprise, his arm curled around her side and he pressed his forehead to hers. “Yes. If you’re sure, then… I am, too.” He chuckled. “ _Definitively_ sure. _Yes_.”  
  
And then before she could even ask what he meant, he kissed her. He _really_ kissed her. Garrus was seemingly intent on tasting every last inch of her mouth, and she wasn't entirely sure if even that would satisfy him. She promptly she forgot that he had answered a question she had not asked as he deepened the kiss. She closed her eyes and purposely forgot everything that was not him.  
  
He kissed her until she was breathless and thoughtless.  
  
He only let her go when his omni-tool comm went off three times.  
  
He glanced down at it guiltily. “Victus. I’m sorry, Shepard, I really should…”  
  
He looked so regretful, but it was hard not to after a kiss like that.  
  
“It’s OK.” She wanted nothing more than to drag him behind an alley, but knew she couldn’t. They both had theirs responsibilities. She touched his cheek, a silent promise to resume what they had started later.  
  
“There’s still supplies I need to try to find, while we’re here.”  
  
He nodded, but hesitated before flicking on the call. “Shepard… I’d still like to talk about this.”  
  
“Me too.” She turned back toward the Normandy and caught James’ amused stare. Evidently their little show had been noticed by more than just the turian camp. “Captain’s quarters later?”  
  
He nodded. With one quick, loving press of his forehead to hers, he turned on the call and walked back toward the turian camp.  
  
She noted with some satisfaction that he looked less weary than when she had arrived.


	2. Chapter 2: A Surprising Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard returns to the Normandy and encounters her strangely nervous turian.

  
Finding supplies for the Normandy took far much of her time. Convincing the Citadel shopkeepers not to gouge her pockets took even longer. The merchants were the only ones who seemed to recognize that there was a war going on, judging by how their profits ate into her credit chit. Medigel, rations, everything useful seemed to be almost quadrupling in price.

By the time she managed to convince some merchants that they should “volunteer” their supplies for the war effort, it was far into the Citadel’s dimmed night cycle. The clocks on the Normandy were showing 21:00 Zulu time and the CIC was all but deserted.

She did a bare-bones run of the ship and directed Steve and Vega toward the supplies. Then, she head upstairs and checked in with Liara. They talked briefly over the quarian fleet, their next stop.  After the Citadel attack by Cerberus, it was a relief not to have a high priority threat going on at the moment.

Other than the constant, looming threat of the extermination of all sentient life, anyway.

As soon as she finished with Liara, her feet moved of their own accord to the battery. Garrus was not there, much to her disappointment. The battery was dark and she suspected he had been waiting on her a while.

“EDI, present location of Officer Vakarian?”

“Officer Vakarian is in on Deck 1, Commander.”

Well, that gave her all the motivation she needed to try to rush through the rest of the check-ins.

And after checking in with Traynor, Allers, and Chakwas, she was free.

An hour after she’d arrived back on the Normandy, she finally made to her room.

Given how often Garrus was sleeping in it lately, it was far more accurate to call it _their_ room. She smiled. Yes, she liked the sound of _their_ room much, much better.

She opened the door and there he was.

Not that he noticed her. He was too busy pacing back and forth in their quarters. Judging from the small scratch marks on the floor, he’d been doing it a while. His duffel from Manae was flung haphazardly over her bed, seemingly forgotten by her agitated turian.

She wondered if something had happened on the docks to put him in this state. The turians had more news from the home front than anyone else and that was a blessing as much as it was a curse. Her heart fell when she thought about what kind of news might have come from Victus this time.

The news they received lately was rarely good.

When he saw her, he skidded to a halt. “Shepard.” He whispered, and his voice was so soft she could barely hear it. “I thought you’d…changed your mind.” She’d never heard him so quiet, and the nerves that had started to twist in her chest plunged deep into her stomach. Somehow, _she_ had upset him. Was it because she was so late?

“Changed my mind about what, Garrus?” She walked over to the couch and sat down, motioning for him to follow.

He kept walking. “About…seizing the moment…” He scratches his cheek. “Do you…Are you sure you want to do this?”

She wasn’t sure what “this” entailed. “Garrus - “

“It’s ok, if you don’t, you know. I wouldn’t, uh, want to make you feel like you had to.”  
  
“Garrus -”

“I mean, if you do, I do, and I even did some research into human customs for this sort of thing, I - “

“Garrus, sit.” She hit the cushion next to her. “Talk. What’s going on?”  
  
He walked over to the couch and, almost hesitantly, sat down and turned to her. “I just…” His head slumped. “I’m not sure how to do this. I mean, I _want_ to do this, but I’m not sure how humans….” He got up again, this time grabbing the duffel he’d thrown over her bed, before returning to the seat next to her.

“Your people aren’t like turians. If you were turian, well,” he huffed. “We’d be _done_. But humans, you have so many different ways of doing this…I don’t know if I’m picking the right one.”

Shepard had no idea what he was talking about, but Garrus looked more lost than she’d ever seen him.

More lost than _I just want everything to go_ right; even more lost than _never knew you had a weakness for men with scars_.

He must have been able to read that in her face, because he looked at her for a moment, then glanced away. “I read, uh, that you’re supposed to ask for a sort of benediction before you do this from the female’s father. So uhm, well…” He grabbed for her hand and wrapped his three fingers around her five.

“Spirit of Shepard’s father,” he bowed his head, “please watch over Shepard and I as we uh, well, you know. I hope you would have approved. May we bring pride to your memory by keeping the galaxy safe.”

He beamed at her expectantly, his mandibles flaring out in a turian smile.

Shepard considered her options. She still didn’t know what was going on.

Was he giving her some kind of war blessing? Was that what he was so nervous about – sharing that with her? It was a beautiful thought. And addressing the spirit of her father was a nice touch.

He was _adorable_ , she decided, and smiled at him.

Garrus was still staring at her, and she realized he was waiting for her to respond. Should she pray to any of his family members? Maybe his mom? But his mother had not died in war, as her father had. What if using her spirit in this ritual was offensive?

She wished she had more time to learn about his culture.

He tilted his head for a moment and blinked, which was Garrus for _I’m confused._ She realized that he had, in fact, been expecting a reply, a reply she had not given him. And since she had not, she had been silent for far too long.

 _Throw me a line here, Vakarian_ she thought, willing him to become telepathic.

The silence continued another awkward minute. And another. And another. Garrus, much to her sadness, did not seem to develop any kind of psychic ability. He let go of her hand and looked away again. She knew that she either had to give him a reply or spend the entire night watching Garrus stare at her fish tank.

She decided honesty was the best policy.

“That was very nice, Garrus. I’m glad you uh, shared that with me, although I don’t quite understand what I’m supposed to do in this, uh, ceremony.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Maybe you could help walk me through it?”  
  
“Oh, hm, I guess…well, the vids did say that was the old-fashioned approach.” He frowned, but squeezed her hand in return. “…Maybe it would be easier if I just showed you.” He finally said, and rooted through his bag before producing what looked like—a pound of ground chuck?  
  
“Garrus, is that ….hamburger?” She watched as a small bit of hamburger meat slid out of the packaging and landed on the floor with a soft _plop_. The poor plastic tubing had clearly not been made for Garrus’ talons.  
  
His mandibles fluttered outward. “Damn it! I asked for cow. I’m sorry, Shepard, I’m doing this all wrong. The extranet said that humans sometimes give animals as presents for this sort of thing. I went to the Bachrjet markets but they said they only sold dead ones and, hell, I figured you’d probably want a dead one anyway since humans seem squeemish about killing their own food and -”

She cut off his blabbering with a raised hand. Instantly, Garrus shut his mouth, mandibles pulled forward in an expression that could only be called _sheepish_.

“Garrus, maybe explain to me _why_ you’re offering me meat?”

Inexplicably, he grinned at that. “Oh, you don’t follow that tradition either! Good! Good. Then it doesn’t matter what earth animal it is.” He put the meat down on the ground, then dove back into the bag with both fanatical zeal and absolutely no further explanation.  
  
“Garrus, could you just tell me what’s –“The rest of the words died in her throat as Garrus pulled out a jewelry box and moved, awkwardly, down to one knee.

Her jaw dropped.

“The vids said this was the right posture. I think.” He looked so endearingly uncertain that she wanted to simultaneously punch him and hug him.

“Garrus, are you asking me to marry you?” 


	3. Chapter 3: Plans Set in Motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus realizes Shepard's proposal was an accident and tries to take his back. Shepard, however, has other plans.

“Garrus, are you asking me to marry you?” 

He chuckled. “Of course. Isn’t that how this tradition goes for you?” He opened the box and she stared at its contents: a gold band with a large blue stone in the center, and two smaller, white ones on either side.

It was beautiful.

And _completely_ out of left field. She could practically hear her heart hammering in her chest.  
  
She wondered if he could hear it, too.

“Garrus, I – I don’t know what to say.”  
  
His smile vanished.

“You say yes, of course. Isn’t this what you wanted? I thought…I thought this was – I mean, you… “  
  
“Garrus, I’m not saying no, I’m not just wondering what brought all this on.“

He swung his legs back into a kneeling position in a way no human could, and looked downright appalled. She could see he was adrift in his own thoughts by the way he stared at her. His mandibles were fully slack jawed in what she suspected was turian for _horrified._  
  
“You-You didn’t know?” Garrus’ normally gravely voice was hitting high-pitched tones that she hadn’t even known he could hit.   
  
“Know what?” She reached for his hand, but he pulled away.   
  
“What you did earlier…that…that didn’t mean anything to you.” His head slumped forward and he murmured something that her translator didn’t catch, but certainly sounded profane. “Spirits, I thought…”

He trailed off. He looked the very image of defeat, kneeling with his head slumped down, morosely staring at the ring still in his hands.  
  
She searched desperately through the earlier morning for clues to what he was talking about. “That kiss? That meant a lot to me. I like when you- “  
  
“No, not that. It wasn’t….special…to you?” Garrus made an odd keening noise before slamming the ring box shut and stuffing it back into his pocket. “I should have known I’d mess this up.”  
  
“Garrus.” She leaned down, cupping his chin in her hands and pulling his head up to meet hers in a turian kiss. When she broke away, two bright-blue eyes stared guiltily at her. She was quite certain she’d never seen his neck quite this color before. “What’s going on?”  
  
She had always wanted to make him blush, but not quite like this.

“You touched my waist in public, Shepard.” He said, as if this explanation was the most obvious thing in the world. “You said you wanted to seize the moment with me. What was I supposed to think?”

“You needed comforting. I comforted. Where, exactly, in that, was a marriage proposal?”

“You _touched_ my _waist_ in _public_. You _claimed_ me as yours.” He looked away. “You even silenced that old woman who objected to your bonding claim! How…how could you not know?”

“Garrus, I…” She swallowed. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I wish I did.”  
  
“But…” He looked away. “Shepard…What you did…If a turian woman does that to a man, it’s…it’s, well, an invitation to, uh, nest.”  
  
“Nest…?”

His throat was so blue she was, at this point, quite certain he was losing blood in other, less critical areas. “You know, Shepard! _Nesting_.”

“I really, really don’t.”   
  
He sighed and stood, moving toward the fish tank as if he was suddenly enraptured by her Thessian sunfish. “It’s uh, it’s what we call…Well, our version of the asari’s matron stage, I guess. It’s uh, wanting to settle down, build a home and uh…”  
  
“…Have children?” Children were a fantasy that she had only allowed herself to think about when she had been under arrest. It was one thing to imagine Garrus laughing as he tugged little turian and human tots into a bath when she didn’t know if she’d see him again. It was another to hear that he wanted it, too.

And it made those fantasies so much more real.  
  
“Yeah. Damn. I thought you wanted…” He shook his head and started walking toward the door. “I think I…I should go. Can we just, uh, just pretend this didn’t happen, Shepard?”

For a moment, she stared at him. She could let him go out that door, and he would act like nothing had changed, but it had. They both knew it.

She may not have intended to propose to him, but, well, as he had once said – why the hell not?

There was every chance they were going to die tomorrow, and there was no one in the galaxy she wanted to share her life with more than him.

She’d be damned if Garrus Vakarian was going to get out of this just because they’d both misread a few signals.

Hell, he’d already said yes. He’d essentially been blindsided with a marriage proposal this morning – and he’d said _yes_.  
  
No, Garrus Vakarian was not getting a do-over.  
  
“Don’t you want to hear my answer first, Garrus?”   
  
He stopped his rapid retreat toward the door and, as predicted, froze. “Let’s just consider this our first inter-species awkwardness thi-”

“ _Garrus_. Yes.”

She could see from the way he whipped around that he had not quite expected that. She took advantage of his momentary shock, moving toward him as he tilted his head toward her in a look of abject confusion.   
  
“…What?”  
  
“Yes, Garrus. Yes. _Definitely_ yes.” She finally reached her very-shocked fiance. Damn, that was something new and terrifying and wonderful – _her_ _fiance_. She kissed him slowly, starting with two quick pecks onto the edge of his mandibles before stretching up on her toes to press a kiss to his mouth plate. He still didn’t react, so she put one hand on his heart. It pulsed fast underneath her fingertips, so she tugged him closer with her other hand until she felt him return the embrace. “Always yes.”  
  
“Are you su-“  
  
“ _Yes._ ” She smiled as his arms squeezed her that much tighter, and he made a soft whimpering noise as he pressed his nose into her hair.

“Shepard, I-I-”

“I think you have a ring to give me?” She smiled.  
  
“Oh!” He pulled the ring box back out of his pocket and slipped the ring onto her finger. He’d done a surprisingly good job of sizing it, which made her wonder if he'd been planning this long before this morning. “I uh, wasn’t sure what color. There were so many in the shop and I uh, I didn’t have time to uh finish my, uh, research - “

“It’s perfect.” She said and it was. The blue was the same color as his markings, and wearing it made her feel connected to him. It was a physical reminder she would wear into every battle to remind her what she was fighting for.

Garrus leaned down and nuzzled her cheek. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I really do.” She gave him another smile, and watched his mandibles flare out wide in response.

“So, what do we do now? You said that by turian standards, we’d be done.” She pulled at the fabric covering his sensitive waist. “That mean the next step is the honeymoon, hubby?”  
  
“Welll…” He chuckled. “Generally, turian bondings are private affairs. Once both parties uh, assent to being publicly bonded, that’s…generally it, outside of some paperwork, of course. Then, there’s usually a clan gathering where members of both families would meet; that’s an _adfinitas_.”

“Hmmm.” She grinned. “Your sister and your dad, huh?”  
  
“Yeah.” He smiled. “I’d like you to meet my sister. You’d like her.”  
  
“I bet I will.” She chuckled. “Believe it or not, I would like to meet your dad, too.”  
  
Garrus made an odd face. “That’s ah….” He coughed. “You might change your mind on that.”  
  
“Doubt it.” She squeezed his waist. “Either he’s a professional turian gentleman and we have a nice, if formal, adfin-adifi…afinit…?” She glanced at him. “Help?”  
  
“Adfinitas.” He grinned.

“Adfinitas, or he shares your ability to put his foot in his mouth at the most amusing of times.” She raised an eyebrow. “Either way, I look forward to it.”  
  
“Me too.” He laughed warmly. “But I don’t think we’ll be able to do it for a while.” His mandibles quivered against her cheek. “I mean, I guess we could, but I’d uh, well, I’d like my family…” He looked away.

“To be there. I know. And if I have anything to say about it, they will be.” She cupped his cheek, and marveled as Garrus leaned into her hand. His expression was so god damned _raw_ with longing that she wanted nothing more than to hold him and promise him they’d all make it through the war.

But she knew she couldn’t promise that.

Neither of them could.

“Yeah.” He cupped her cheek. “I know.”

And in that, she knew that just being together, for now, was enough. For a moment, they simply held each other in the darkness of the room.

It was Garrus who broke the silence.

“Shepard.”

“Garrus, I’m going to be your _wife_ someday _._ I think you can start calling me by my first name more often.”  
  
He did, and she shivered. “Humans tend to have a ceremony for this, right?”

“Don’t need it.”

“But Shep-” He caught himself and grinned. “Think of how the council will react when they find out _we have a marriage certificate.”_

“Hmm. Well, it certainly would open up a whole new field of questions about whether I’m biased by the Turian Hierarchy. Might be a nice chance of pace after being grilled about my involvement with the Alliance and Cerberus.” She snorted. “Although I don’t think Sparatus will take it well, to be honest.”

“Conservative old bastard. He won’t.” He grinned. “But he also won’t be able to do much about it, since Victus has higher priorities than annulling one marriage.”

“I doubt Tevos and Valern will be thrilled by humans and turians getting closer either." She paused. "You know, I think we could simultaneously induce at least two council members to drink in less than thirty words.” She raised an eyebrow. “That’s pretty impressive. Pity Udina’s dead, or it could have been three.”

“Well, we make a good team.”

She grinned. “You sure you wanna go through a human ceremony? Long speeches, some public kissing - “  
  
“Shepard, I think I can rise to the challenge of kissing you in public.”

“Oh?” She winked. “There was a time you weren’t so sure about that, Vakarian.”

“Well…The feedback I’ve gotten lately has been very, very good.” He chuckled. “But I do think I might need to keep practicing. Wouldn’t want to get rusty.”

“Definitively not.” She murmured.

He kissed her forehead with a positive hum. “Besides, you know… There’s something to be said about your human traditions.”

“I won’t tell your father you said that.”  
  
“Good girl.” His mandibles slackened in a grin, before pulling forward into what she liked to call Garrus’ thinking face. She’d seen it frequently with his calibrations, and it was always cute.

“Shepard…” He grabbed her hand. “I know you said it's not important to you, but...I want this to be something recognized in  _both_ of our cultures. You’re going to be my wife. I want  _everyone_ to know that and recognize it.”

“Why Vakarian, you secret romantic.” He nuzzled her forehead with his chin lightly in response.

“So… When do you want to do this?” She ran a hand along his arm. “Should we start picking out a date for our wedding?”

He was silent for a long moment, his only movement the soft brush of his hand against her back.

“Do you…think we could do it now?”  
  
“Wait – Tonight? Do you really want to do this so quickly?”

“Seize the moment, right?” He pressed his forehead close to hers. “We…There’s no guarantee we’re going to make it through this, Shepard. And I’ve waited long enough, with us.” His fingers laced through hers and squeezed. “This feels right.”

“Yeah, it does.” She swallowed. “Don’t suppose you know a place that does quickie weddings? Las Vegas is off the table, I’m afraid.”

“There’s a little place on Zakera that does ceremonies like that. Used to have to bust up a lot of drunk fights there, in the old days.”

She leaned up to kiss his cheek and smirked. “Sounds like a plan. Operation Give the Council a Hangover is go. But first…we’re gonna do a couple things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation Notes:
> 
>  **Adfinitas** : Latin for "relationship by marriage".


	4. Chapter 4: Not Too Late to Fall Back

“Looking to start the honeymoon before we even get hitched? Naughty, _naughty_.” He shifted forward and slowly ran his tongue over the edge of her lips, and she moaned as his tongue darted into her mouth to meet hers.

He _really_ was getting good at that.

With some regret, she broke the kiss.

Garrus looked at her with a hurt expression on his face. "Later." She promised, and kissed his mandibles.

“But we’ve got two things to do first. One, you’re going to help me clean the hamburger that’s dripping onto our floor. Otherwise, Traynor is going to wonder if we’re making some kind of blood sacrifice.”  
  
He looked sheepishly toward the leaking container. “Sorry.”

“Two, you’re going to go change out of your armor and into some civies. I am _not_ spending half of our far-too-short honeymoon trying to get you undressed.”

“I think I can do that.” His mandibles twitched into a grin.

* * *

After Garrus had left, mangled bits of hamburger still clutched between his talons, Shepard stared at her closet.   
  
She was getting married in less than an hour, and she really didn’t have a thing to wear.

She understood that women often wore wear dresses for this sort of thing. Somehow, formal attire hadn’t been seen as part of the essential Alliance wardrobe. Given the state of the Normandy’s retrofit when they left, she was lucky that she had two uniforms and her dress blues to wear.

Of course, the problem was, she _only_ had two uniforms and her dress blues. Her one pair of civies – a hoodie and a pair of jeans she’d picked up on the Citadel after sleeping in her uniform a few too many times – wasn’t exactly wedding attire.

Both her regular uniforms were a bit threadbare. With the war on, it would be a long time until she could get new ones.

She sighed. That left just one thing.

She pulled out her formal uniform and glanced at it. High collar, double-breasted, shoulder pads. It was formal, but not sexy. Not at all.

It would have to do.

She wondered if Garrus would be disappointed if the human ritual didn’t match exactly with what he had read on the extranet.

But they didn’t exactly have time for a storybook wedding. Besides, it had been an ancient earth tradition for members of the military to get married in uniform.

Maybe it was the same for turians?

She dressed quickly. At least it was  easy to get on and off. That was good, given that Garrus could be a bit…enthusiastic…undressing her when he was excited.   
  
It had been a miracle that one of her two uniforms had survived their first night after Manae. One second, they had been confirming their relationship in the battery; the next, they were consummating it in her room.

She was pretty sure tonight was going to be another one of those nights, when his fingers might get a bit _too_ eager. Especially after he saw the new underwear she’d gotten during the supply haul. At least _that_ might help to make up for the staid dress blues.

Besides, given the state of the galaxy, she doubted Hackett’s number one concern would be how she lost a few buttons on her dress jacket. Losing them to a turian hell-bent on getting her naked and happy seemed like the best possible scenario.

She brushed her hair back from her face and put her kepi on, then stared in the mirror.

Admiral Hannah Shepard stared back, and she wondered when, exactly, she had turned into her mother. When had she developed the dark circles under her eyes?

The thought of a great and terrible forest, alive with the whispers of the dead, came to her in response. That dream….She shook her head. _No. Not tonight._

There were so many they had not saved, but they had each other. They were together; that would be enough.

Both of them had endured losses during the war and had been transformed by them. Garrus was hardly the young, cowboy cop he’d been when he’d run off with her to take on Saren. She was hardly the young commander suddenly thrust into her first prominent command.

With a sigh, she pulled down the kepi and exited her room and hoped to avoid the crew. All but one member of the crew, anyway. After all, she really didn’t want to get delayed answering questions about where she was was heading off to at 22:30 Zulu time in dress blues.

\- - -

Thankfully, there was only one crew member waiting in the CIC. Despite the low lighting of the night schedule, she spotted Garrus leaning up against the counter in the CIC right away. He was wearing an outfit she hadn’t seen before. Most of his civies were colorful, but this one was nearly all black. The only things that weren’t were small white accents on the sides and the collar. And far, far too many buckles at the legs. She bit back a sigh at that.

Turian fashion was always going to be a challenge, but she swore the Heirarchy didn’t think about the time they wasted on buckles.

However, disappointment at not being able to get your fiances pants off in less than five seconds was, decidedly, not something she was going to tell him.

Not when he was sitting there taking deep breaths with his eyes shut.

She was _not_ going to scare off the groom on their wedding night.

“Hey.” She whispered, and though he turned his head in her direction, he didn’t open his eyes.

“Hi.” He murmured. He held out his hand, eyes still closed.

“Don’t think I’ve seen you in this one, before.” She raised an eyebrow as she grasped his hand, though the expression was lost on him. “Did you smuggle the turian equivalent of a tuxedo off of Palaven?”

“Huh?” _Tux-she-do_? It’s my dress uniform. Standard turian military issue.”

“Heh, well, you clean up nice. Garrus.” She ran a hand up his arm. “Very classy.”

“Glad you approve. I’m sure you look lovely as well.” He said, still not opening his eyes.

“Uh, Garrus?” She watched him sniff the air for a second, before lowering his head to hers, nuzzling her cheek with his. “Is there a reason you’re keeping your eyes closed?”  
  
“It’s uh, I read it was bad luck to see the bride before…”  
  
“Garrus.” She groaned. “You’ve seen the bride before.” She pulled back a bit to stroke the sensitive underside of one of his mandibles and watched with a smirk as he moaned. “You’ve seen a lot of the bride before.”

He groaned. Hs eyes shot open as she dipped her free hand lower, moving from the hide at the base of his neck to the curve of his waist. “Definitively going to be seeing a _lot_ _more_ of the bride tonight if I have anything to say about it.”  
  
“You’re -” Garrus stopped mid-sentence as the elevator dinged. Both she and Garrus froze as the elevator door to the CIC blinked open.

“If that’s Liara, we’re never getting out of here, are we?”  
  
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Frankly, we’ll be lucky if she doesn’t – what did she used to say? - flay us with her mind.”  
  
But it was, thankfully, not Liara.   
  
“Eww, guys, I’m trying to eat.” Joker announced as he emerged from the elevator. In his hand, he held a surprisingly full cup of noodles. Somehow, Joker managed not to spill it as he lurched back toward the pilot’s bay.

For a second, neither she nor Garrus said anything.

Garrus recovered first.

“You’re up late, Joker.” Garrus commented, as Joker hobbled past them. “Weren’t you on morning shift today?”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved an arm as he moved forward. “You really sure you want to give me grief about violating Alliance regulations, G-man? Cuz’ I’m not the one doing some kind of kinky First Contact War roleplaying with their commanding officer in the CIC in the middle of the night.”

“Uh, right, right.” Garrus drawled. “Well, we’ll see you later Joker.”  
  
“Have fun, kids.” He waved them on as he crossed the divide into the pilot’s quarters. “Enjoy your fun. Just do it in a non-public area, please. Some of us have to watch these cameras while we’re eating.”   
  
“Goodnight, Joker.” Shepard said, inserting just a touch of reprimand into her goodbye. Joker ignored it, waving cheerily toward her and Garrus with his non-noodle-cup bearing arm.

“Close one.” Garrus murmured. “Now, before we get interrupted again…” He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers in a gentle kiss. “You look beautiful. I can see why they tell human males not to look at the bride – I’ll never be able to concentrate on the ceremony with you looking like this.”  
  
“Not disappointed it isn’t more traditional?”  
  
“Disappointed? In you? Never.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, this time flickering his tongue against her mouth until she let him in. It was a long kiss. A good kiss. No, not just good, she thought, as he ran his fingers through her hair, a really, really excellent one.

Garrus Vakarian, she decided, was a god damned kissing _genius_.

This time, he broke the kiss and pushed his forehead to meet hers, humming happily when she pressed back. “Flatterer.” she murmured against his mouth.

“Are you ready?” He asked; his eyes, always intense, were flooded with a heat she rarely saw outside of the bedroom. “Not too late to fall back.”

“Falling back isn’t our style, Vakarian.” She squeezed his hand. “Yes. Very ready. You?”  
  
“Definitively.” He breathed deeply for a moment. “Okay. Okay. Let’s uh, let’s go.”

He put an arm around her waist, and she did the same. He shot her a grin as they walked through the CIC.

She noticed as they exited that, for the first time, he kept holding her waist even as they slipped through the Citadel crowds.

She smiled.


	5. Chapter 5: Only Fools Rush In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard and Garrus make it to the Chapel, only to undergo a few more unforeseen challenges.

As Garrus led her through the crowds, Shepard stayed close to his side, savoring the close contact. In his civies, she could feel the heat pouring out of his body.  
  
Garrus, for his part, seemed entirely focused on their destination.  
  
“I’m surprised you can remember where this place is,” Shepard said, as he made another turn.  
  
He laughed. “I don’t think I could forget it. I got called out here at least once a week.” He squeezed her waist. “You humans seem to have trouble holding your liquor.”  
  
“Hey!” She raised an eyebrow. “Remember the after-party when we beat Saren? I wasn’t the one singing 'To Die for the Cause' three ryncol shots in.”  
  
“No,” he smiled. “But you did join in, despite not speaking turian, having a second voice box, or being familiar with the melody. Admit it Shepard, that was a wash.”  
  
She just smiled and squeezed his waist tightly instead, knowing it would distract him from the argument.  
  
He groaned. “Shepard, stop that.”  
  
She smirked and pressed in again, this time sliding her hand from the dip of his waist to the top of his hips.  
  
Lightning fast, he wrapped his arms around her. “Bad girl,” he murmured, voice low.  
  
“You know it,” she said, and kissed him. Her tongue pushed into his mouth – careful to avoid any of his sharp incisors. He moaned, and his sub-vocals echoed with need and desire.  
  
"Shepard, stop that." He murmured, but his sub-vocals whispered a far different emotion.  
  
"You sure about that?" She kissed him again, more urgently, and felt his hands dip below her waist.  
  
He panted. “Shepard, please. I would like to get married before C-SEC busts us for public indecency laws.”  
  
“Mmm, I think I could explain.” She licked the underside of his mandibles and he closed the tiny bit of distance between them. She could feel his cock already slipping past his pelvic plating and smirked.    
  
Knowing full well the effect it would have on him, she leaned in and planted a soft row of kisses down the side of his neck.  
  
“Shepard, I…” he moaned. “I am the luckiest man in the universe.” One hand caressed her side lovingly. “But you need to stop.”  
  
She raised an eyebrow. He sighed.  
  
“You’re a famous woman, Shepard. The last thing I want to see on the news is Khalisah al-Jilani accusing me of forcing you into some kind of sordid sex wedding.”  
  
“If she did that, I’d slug her.” And, Shepard thought, she would deserve it.  
  
“All the more reason to remove temptation, then.” He chuckled into her ear. “Surely you can think of better things for us to do tonight than fill out paperwork at C-SEC?”  
  
“I dunno, I’m awfully fond of young and, hmm, _impressionable_ C-SEC detectives.”    
  
He shot her a look.  
  
She laughed. “Lead the way, Officer Vakarian.”  
  
“Right.”  
  
They weren’t far now, judging by the fact that she had seen at least five other brides.  
  
Two of them had chased one another, giggling with an innocence that she wished she could still share.  
  
“Hmm, just around the corner, I think.”  
  
She nodded. When they turned the corner, she stopped.  
  
Suddenly, she understood why Garrus Vakarian had never quite been able to forget this place.  
  
It was tacky as hell. A gigantic, animated elvis gyrated on the roof under a neon red and white sign that blinked HUNKA HUNKA BURNIN’ LOVE CHAPEL off and on in bright lights. A smaller, slightly classier statuette of the goddess Tevura stood poised to Elvis’ left. Tevura held a simple sculpture of two straight lines that gradually curved into one. A spinning wheel with red and white blinking heart-shaped lights spun around both Elvis and Tevura.  
  
“That is…Wow.” She coughed into her sleeve to try to cover up her laughter.  
  
Garrus looked pleased. “It’s exactly the way I remember it.” He tilted his head. “Are all human temples so ostentatious?”  
  
“Temples?” She squeaked.  
  
“You know, places to worship your …spirits?””  He squinted. “Isn’t the gyrating man one of your gods?”  
  
 “Oh, Garrus.” She laughed. “That’s Elvis. And he’s not a god, just an old musician. Really old. Centuries old.”  
  
Garrus looked confused. “So he’s some sort of spirit of love for your people to pray to?”  
  
“Well, he wasn’t famous so much for singing. I mean, he was, but really, we remember him for the dancing.”  
  
“A singer famous for dancing?” He tilted his head. “…You call that dancing?”  
  
“It passed for it, two hundred years ago.”  
  
“I certainly see where you get it, Shepard.” He shook his head. “By human standards, you must be a truly beautiful dancer.”  
  
“Hey!” She swatted at his wrist and he laughed. “No poking fun at the bride.”  
  
“Ah,” He grinned. “But after this, perhaps a _different_ type of poking, eh?”  
  
She groaned at the bad line. “Not if you keep coming up with lines that terrible.”  
  
He looked hurt for a second.  
  
She sighed. “Okay, even if you keep up the bad lines. It _is_ your wedding night.”  
  
He flapped his mandibles in a proud grin.  
  
\- - -  
  
The line was long, but not as long as Shepard might have expected. She had thought that Garrus and she would hardly be the only military couple – and on that account, she seemed to be dead wrong.  
  
Nearly everyone waiting was a civilian, fat with happiness.  Even though there had been an attack on the Citadel only days before, the people here seemed to take no notice.  
  
Most of the other couples chit-chatted about things Shepard now thought strange to even think about: celebrities, office gossip, hair styles.  
  
The only decisions she had made in _months_ that didn’t involve the dead or the slowly dying were the ones that pertained to Garrus.  
  
And those were the only decisions that had gone right.  
  
Garrus put his hand in hers and she smiled. It was so easy for him told her hand now, but it had flummoxed him mere months earlier.  
  
Her soon-to-be-husband pressed his forehead against hers in a wordless question.  
  
“I’m fine.” She nodded, forced a smile. “Just…thrown by how things are here.”  
  
“It feels like nothing happened here.” He hummed in agreement. “It’s hard to take when you know better.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Ah!” They were saved by any more potentially depressing thoughts by a young asari in a long toga. “Welcome to the Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love chapel, where true love’s kiss happens every hour, on the hour!” She beamed.  
  
“I am Aphrodite, goddess of love!” Shepard coughed into her hand as the asari proudly held up a bow and an arrow with a little paper heart taped to it. “How can I help you two officers today?”  
  
“We’d, ah, like to get married.” Garrus said, and grinned.  
  
“Oh my! How wonderful for you.” Aphrodite looked around them and blinked. “Wait. To…each other?”  
  
“Yes.” Garrus said, with just a hint of annoyance in his voice.  
  
“Oh! How, ah, lovely!” The asari grinned and rubbed the back of her head. “I’m sorry, it’s just…well, I’ve never seeen a turian and human couple before.” She looked at Shepard. “You’re aware turians bond for life, dear?”  
  
Shepard grabbed at his waist. “I’m aware.”  
  
Garrus said nothing. Instead, he returned the gesture, leaving no doubt about what kind of soft and squishy lover he preferred.  
  
“Ah well, not like either of you can live long enough to regret it, I suppose.”  
  
Aphrodite shifted on her feet uncomfortably. She must have just realized how offensive her comment was, because the next second she was grinning like a madwoman. “But uhm, we should totally be able to accommodate you!” She pulled up a document on her omnitool.  
  
 “The hunka hunka burnin’ love chapel does not discriminate against any coupling between sentient, consenting species.”  
  
“Good to know.”  Shepard replied, failing to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.  
  
“You’re really a very cute couple.” Aphrodite blathered, visible uncomfortable. “And the military look, it’s very chic! Did you get the uniforms from that little shop down in Tayseri?” She gushed.  
  
Aphrodite leaned over and whispered at them. “I love them! They used to sell all sorts of military decommissioned gear – very authentic.” She frowned. “They haven’t gotten shipments of anything in a long time, though.” A sigh. “Such a pity.”  
  
“Well, I got mine straight for Haliat, standard turian recruit assortment.” He glanced at Shepard. “Yours from Earth?”  
  
“Yep. Alliance Commission Center #1, Vancouver.”  
  
“Oh, goddess!” The asari squealed. “Two actual officers from the reaper wars, running away to our little chapel to get married!” She grinned as she pulled up her omni-tool. “And Hierarchy and Alliance, such a forbidden love angle…” Aphrodite sighed. “How romantic…”  
  
“Eros!” She shouted out to a very unhappy looking salarian behind the counter. “You need to come over and take a picture of me with these two!”  
  
The salarian grumbled but did as he was told, loading his omni-cam as Aphrodite squeezed in-between Garrus and Shepard.  
  
“Say ‘TRUE LOVE!’” Aphrodite commanded.  
  
“True love?” Garrus said, sounding confused. Shepard said nothing.  
  
Eros took the picture, and wordlessly beamed it over to Aphrodite’s omni-tool.  
  
“No charge for the picture.” Aphrodite grinned. “Now, what kind of service do you want?”  
  
“What kind?” Garrus sounded intrigued, and Shepard bit back a groan.  
  
“Well,” Aphrodite’s eyes flickered to Shepard. “We offer several varieties of human religious ceremonies: christian, buddist, confucian, wiccan, jewish, islamic. And of course, we also offer siari services.” Her eyes flickered to Garrus. “There are also several civil services, the most popular of which is, of course, the Elvis.”  
  
Garrus looked worried and opened his mouth, but Shepard cut him off. “Do you do the standard Alliance civil?”  
  
“Oh, yes, of course.” The asari beamed.  
  
"We’ll do that." It was short, and it would avoid any kind of further explanation to Garrus as to Elvis’ career. A win-win situation.  
  
“Shepard,” Garrus whispered, “Are you sure you don’t want the elvis one? I know you’re a big fan.”  
  
She groaned. “We’ll take the Alliance Standard civil. I’m sure.”  
  
“Alright!” Aphrodite grinned. “Ah, next thing, we’ll need to prepare a certificate for you. Do you have an omnitool?”  
  
Garrus nodded and gave his numbers.  
  
“Alright, I’ll send over all the standard Citadel forms. Will you be needing any other forms?”  
  
“Hierarchy form for the addition of a spouse.” Garrus said.  
  
“Same – but for the Alliance.”  
  
Aphrodite squinted and made a few taps on her omni-tool, before hitting the transfer button.  
  
“Please follow me to one of our loveseats,” which, Shepard noted, were _of course_ in the shape of a heart.  She grinned. “Just call for me when you’re ready, OK?”  
  
Garrus sat down on one end of the heart shaped loveseat and Shepard bit her tongue to avoid commentating on how ridiculous it looked. Instead, she sat as close to him as possible, watching him fill in his end of the forms.  
  
When he hastily filled in his title, she quickly did a translator search on it and blanched. She hit him on the arm. “You son of a bitch!”  
  
Several couples looked up, and Shepard felt a bit guilty as Garrus looked at her with something approaching terror on his face.  
   
“What?”  
  
“When were you going to tell me?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“That!” She pointed down at his title.  
  
“Oh.” He looked away. “Uhm, uhm, well….” He coughed. “Maybe …never? It doesn’t mean anything, Shepard.”  
  
“It doesn’t?” She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know a lot about turian social ranks, but I know that’s awful high. How far down the line of succession for Primarch are you, Garrus?”  
  
“I don’t know, Shepard.” A sigh. “Before the war, maybe 100, 150 from the top.”  
  
Her eyes narrowed. “And now?”  
  
“Probably between 10 to 20.” He shook his head. “But it’s not gonna happen.”  
  
“You didn’t think it was worth telling me you were possibly _tenth in line_ to be Primarch of Palaven?” She crossed her arms. “That’s kind of a big deal, Garrus.”  
  
“I wouldn’t accept it even if they asked me.” He rubbed her hair. “I mean, me? In charge of billions of people?” He snorted.  
  
“Makes sense to me.” She said. “I think you should consider it if you get the nod.”  
  
He looked at her, eyes a bit wide.  
  
“You’ve always been a good leader, Garrus. There’s a reason you’re practically the Normandy’s XO.”  
  
“Oh.” He stared at her for a second. “I, uh, also didn’t think you’d ever consider living on Palaven. It’s a bit of an extreme climate, for humans. So I was planning on turning it down if…if it ever happened.”  
  
“Garrus, why would you just turn down a big career opportunity without even asking if I might be ok with it?” She touched his hands. “I wouldn’t mind, by the way. I can deal with hot, and I like tropical.”  
  
She paused.  
  
"Hell with the kind of life we lead, having an enviro-suit around might even come in handy."  
  
“Oh, well, I…Uh…” He squeezed her hand and looked aside. “It’s just…I didn’t want my rank to change how you felt.” He was avoiding looking at her now – which was Garrus for _I’m uncomfortable having this conversation._  
  
She leaned into to comfort him, resting a palm on his heart.  
  
“You thought I’d leave you because you got a promotion?”  
  
“Yes. No. Maybe?” He looked at her and sighed. “I thought maybe you’d…you’d decide you were holding me back. Or that you thought I’d put Palaven before you.” He ruffled her hair. “Or that you didn’t want to be tied down.”  
  
"None of that is true, Garrus."  
  
He looked at her, almost vulnerable. “The asari was right, Shepard – when we hit this stage in a relationship, we mate for life. This is…this is…it.” He swallowed. “If you left me, I’d -”  
  
“That’s not going to happen.”  
  
“I-” He attempted to keep going, but she silenced him by moving even closer, one hand on his fringe and the other on his chest. She was practically in his lap now, which earned her a glare from Eros. She didn’t care.  
  
“That’s not going to happen.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth plates. “Dammit, Garrus, I love you. I’m going to _marry_ you. You’re stuck with me now, and it’s high time you realized that.” She smiled. “But you can’t keep things like this from me. We’re partners, right?”  
  
“Yeah.” He pressed his face against hers. “We are.”  
  
“And partners share information with one another.” She pressed her nose to his. “Even if it’s something they think the other person won’t like. Ok?”  
  
“Ok.” He wrapped one arm around her and breathed deeply.  
  
“Besides, you never know. It could be your soon-to-be-wife did some research on her soon-to-be-husband’s home world.” She said, coyly playing with with his mandibles.  
  
“What, uh, what kind of research?”  
  
“Beaches in limited radiation zones kind of research.” She leaned forward and whispered into his aural canal. “Clothing-optional beaches in limited radiation zones research.”  
  
She felt his mandibles flap against her chin in quite obvious interest and giggled.  
  
Eros coughed, not-so-discretely, and Shepard slid back down, letting Garrus go back to the paperwork. From then on, there were less surprises, and at the end he pressed his thumb into the omni-tool, recording his signature.  
  
Then it was her turn. She went through the forms quickly, relieved that most of the questions were standard ones she’d expected.  
  
Garrus eyes had popped out – briefly – when he’d seen her middle name, but he hadn’t commented on it, and she loved him a bit more for that.    
  
Only the hierarchy forms gave her pause.  
  
“Mmm, Garrus, what would my rank be?” She raised her eyebrows. “There’s notes for how to figure it for asari and volus, but not - “  
  
“Ah, civilian would be best for now, I think.”  
  
“But I’m a commander in the Alliance.” She frowned.  
  
“I know, but you’d have to enlist in the Hierarchy before you could obtain one of our military ranks.”  He chuckled. “Not that I’d mind if you did.”  
  
“You would, after I starved to death on my first tour of duty.”  
  
“All turian ships have levo dispensers.” He tapped his fingers against her knee. “Otherwise, how would we feed the volus, hmmmm?”  
  
“Damn. You think I might actually earn a promotion there?”  
  
It was a long-running joke between them how she was slowly but surely becoming the lowest ranked member of the Normandy crew.  
  
At least she was reasonably sure she still out-ranked Joker.  
  
“You definitely would.”  
  
“You sound pretty certain of that.” She laughed. “I guess it’s good one of us has faith in my abilities.”  
  
“Well….” Garrus scratched the side of his face. “I, uh, well, I actually talked to Victus about uh, about bringing you in - “  
  
She turned away from the forms, curiosity piqued. “When did this happen?”  
  
“Before Menae.” He looked down at her. “When Earth went dark, he asked me if I knew anyone else with reaper experience we could bring in. No expense spared. He offered some very decent perks – high wage, high title. Legal wavers.” His mandibles flared out into a smirk. “Naturally, you were my first choice. I told him you helped kill two.”  
  
“ _Helped_?!”  
  
“I did get the last headshot on that baby human reaper, Shepard.”  
  
“I seem to remember getting the last kill shot on Saren. _Twice_.”  
  
“Hey, I never said you were a bad shot, just that you had some help.” He grinned. “I wouldn’t marry a girl who couldn’t hit a husk from 300 yards out.”  
  
“Mmm, you love me for my head-shots?”  
  
“It’s part of your package.” He gave her a blatant up and down glance that surely would have set Eros on a coughing fit if he’d seen it. “Your _very_ comprehensive package.”  
  
“Mmm.” She’d finally reached the end of the forms and, with one finger, pressed her own signature into the line.  
  
One last question popped up, addressed to both: married surname.  
  
She expected there to be a discussion. But to her surprise, Garrus typed in Shepard-Vakarian and looked back at her, fingers poised over the confirmation button. “Partners, right?”  
  
“Yeah. Partners.” She grinned and stroked his scarred cheek. “I like it.”  
  
“Good.” He pressed confirm.  
  
A little electronic heart floated up as he pressed it. Even Shepard had to admit it was a nice touch.  
  
Corny as hell, but a nice touch.  
  
Garrus stood up. Evidently several feet of moving turian must have been easy for Aphrodite to spot. She bounded up over to them, still seemingly endlessly energetic.  
  
“Oh my, done already?” She smiled the same manic, nervous grin she had been sporting a few moments before. “Well, that’s turians for you.” She said, nodding toward Shepard. “Very good at forms and other rote tasks.”  
  
Garrus crossed his arms and opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Aphrodite. “Did you bring your own wedding rings?”  
  
“No.” Shepard replied. Garrus looked even more confused  and she realized, perhaps a bit late, that they’d never discussed this.  
  
“Ah, well, we do sell gold bands on the side in an optional deluxe package. Would you be interested?”  
  
Garrus stared at her, helplessly lost, and she realized she would be fielding this one.  
  
But it was an easy decision. If Garrus had a ring, he’d have a physical reminder of her that he could keep with him, regardless of whatever happened to her.  “Yes.”  
  
Garrus opened his mouth – most likely to ask what the ring was for – but was interrupted again by Aphrodite. She grabbed his hand and pulled it toward hers. “Hmm. What ring size do you wear?”  
  
Garrus tilted his head, confused. “I don’t…know?” He looked toward Shepard for help.  
  
Shepard shrugged. She was an expert in many fields, but most of them involved guns.  
  
Aphrodite looked at them both like they were complete lost causes, sighed, and shouted for Eros.  
  
“Bring the tape measure!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aphrodite and Eros are named after the Greek gods of love and passion, respectively.


	6. Chapter 6: Hell of a Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus and Shepard get some rings, fight pre-wedding jitters, and say their vows.

Five minutes and two ring sizings later, Garrus and Shepard took their seats on a small, red bench. They were sitting outside what she supposed passed for the chapel part of the Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love Chapel.  
  
They were second in line. The only couple ahead of them – the two giggling brides Shepard had seen earlier  – stared at them for a second. However, the novelty of a turian/human couple seemed to fade quickly, and the brides returned to making out with one another after a few moments.  
  
It was not, Shepard thought, a bad way to pass the time. One she’d gladly use if not for the fact her fiance was currently jangling his legs and avoiding looking at her.    
  
“You okay?” She asked, touching his hand. “It’s not too late if…if you’re getting second thoughts.”  
  
His head whipped around to her, lightning fast. “No. No second thoughts.” His forehead leaned toward hers. “Just nervous. My research wasn’t…as complete as I’d like.”  
  
“Nerd.” She nuzzled his nose. “It’ll be fine. You get lost, you tell me.” He nodded, before dipping his head lower to give her a soft, chaste kiss. “But you’re repaying the favor at our – our – what is the turian ceremony for the bonding party called again?”  
  
“ _Adfinitas_.” He said, a shy smile on his face. The word, of course, did not translate, and she blinked at how much more his sub-vocals came through without the translator modifying his speech.  
  
She liked it.  
  
“Ad-fin-i-tas.” She said, trying to pronounce it.  
  
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I’m looking forward to it.”  
  
She smiled. “Me too.”  
  
The brides ahead of them were called, and one of them waved to Shepard and Garrus as she walked through the doors.  
  
“We’re next, big guy.” Shepard murmured.  
  
“Yeah.” He nudged his head against hers. “Shepard?”  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“I’m really looking forward to this, too.”  
  
God damn he was fucking adorable.  
  
She kissed him then, harder, and felt him release a pleased sub-vocal thrum that vibrated through his body and into hers.  
  
“You’re just looking forward to the after-party.”  
  
He chuckled. “Well, yes, that too.”  
  
Eros, looking displeased as ever, waddled into the room in his odd, toga-esque get-up. “You have three minutes to get ready.” He held out a small box. “Rings.”  
  
Garrus got up and took them, then sat down again.  
  
He glanced over at her. “Are we supposed to open the box?”  
  
“You can, if you want.”  
  
“Am I _supposed_ to?” He jiggled the box.  
  
“It doesn’t matter.” She smiled. “Most human couples pick these out together so it doesn’t need to be a big surprise.”  
  
“Oh.” He grinned. “So there’s no tradition either way?”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
Garrus opened the top of the box and they both looked inside. The rings were traditional solid gold bands. Garrus’ ring was a bit wider than hers, but otherwise, there was no real difference between them.  
  
“Shepard, I meant to ask, what’s the point of the rings?” He tilted his head. “I don’t understand.”  
  
“It’s, hmm, a way of saying we belong to one another, I suppose, of showing we’ve, ah, joined together.” She said, sliding her hand into his. “Not that that wasn’t already obvious, but…”  
  
“But it’s nice to have a reminder.” He squeezed her hand. “We’re a hell of a team, Shepard.”  
  
“Yeah.” She nodded. “We are.”  
  
Garrus leaned forward to kiss her, and she decided making out was a nice way to pass the time indeed. However, Eros quickly came back, frown etched on his face. “Come on, it’s time.”  
  
“This is it.” She said, getting up and following the peevish salarian.  
  
She held a hand out to Garrus.  
  
He grinned and took it, and they walked into the chapel together.  
  
\- - -  
  
Garrus’ hand was warm in hers as they walked, hand in hand, into the little room. It was set up in a weird cross between a church – several kinds of churches, actually, judging by the various religious statuettes around the room – and a courtroom. Another asari stood talking with the two giggling brides, and Shepard smiled.  
  
Garrus was caught in the same giddy high as she was because he nuzzled her cheek and chuckled.  
  
Garrus’ voice drew the attention of the asari, who dismissed the two brides with a hug and a bidding to be well.  
  
“Greetings.” She said, and smiled. “I am Nelyna T’saro. You two are here for the Alliance civil ceremony, correct?”  
  
“Yes.” Garrus said.  
  
She grinned. “Then, welcome. I must say, you are a rare pair. This will be the first turian and human marriage I’ve ever had the honor of performing.” She bowed toward them.  
  
“Thank you for marrying us.” Shepard said, lacing her hand with Garrus’s longer one.  
  
“The honor is mine.” Nelyna took the rings from Garrus and motioned for them both to follow her.  “Let’s get started.” She directed Garrus and Shepard to a small podium.  
  
She grabbed a candle and lit it. “Mankind’s first achievement…the flame.” She waved the candle towards Garrus, then toward Shepard, and Shepard felt her nerves flutter. The vow was similar to the one Shepard had taken upon her induction into the Alliance military. “Mankind’s oldest weapon, its earliest friend. It was fire that warmed our homes; fire that burned our enemies; fire that gave us the energy to reach for a new home in the stars.”   Nelyna bowed her head.  
  
“Please place your hands upon the candle.”  
  
Garrus took the candle and, Shepard noticed with pride, his arms didn’t shake at all. Her own fingers slipped over his long ones. He grinned.  
  
“May this flame light the way to you shared future.”  Nelyna chanted. “May the only thing capable of extinguishing your flame be death.”  
  
She motioned for them to put the candle down, and, as one, they did.  
  
“May you be one heart and one soul. Remember that you are entering into the most honorable promise one person can make to another: the promise of one life, shared together. From this moment on, you will walk one path, share one dream as you go forth into the stars. This is a vow you will keep forever, until the end of your days – the promise to share one path, one spirit.”  
  
“If there are any so gathered who object to this union and can offer a good reason these two should not be wed, speak so now.”  
  
Given the sort of life they lived, Shepard braced for someone to barge in, raising all kinds of hell. She could tell from the sudden tightness in Garrus’ back that he was thinking the same thing.  
  
But, miracle of miracles, there were no interruptions, and after a moment of silence, Nelyna grinned and moved on.  
  
She took one of Garrus’ hands and placed it over one of Shepard’s. Garrus two outer fingers gripped onto her wrist tightly, and she weaved Garrus’ middle finger between her own. He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back.  
  
“Garrus Vakarian, do you vow to walk the path of life with her? To be her best friend, her lover, and her confidante through all your days?”  
  
“Yes.” She looked up from their hands, jarred by the odd tone in his voice. His eyes were wavering and he was blinking rapidly.  
  
She fought to hide the smirk that wanted to cross her face. Whoever thought that Garrus Vakarian would be the type to damn near cry at his own wedding?  
  
“Garrus, do you vow to be her partner for life? To be there for her in sickness and in health? To support her in all that she does?”  
  
“Always.”  His voice was cracking.  
  
With her free hand, she reached over and caressed his cheek. He looked at her so lovingly that she felt tears of happiness burning in her eyes.  
  
“Do you take her to be your lawfully wedded wife?”  
  
“Yes.” His free hand was shaking, but he stroked her cheek in return as he answered. “Yes, I do.”  
  
Shepard felt a deep warmth spreading throughout her body. In spite of everything that had happened this year, this felt _right_. There wasn’t a thing about this moment – or Garrus – that wasn’t perfect.  
  
She focused on the details – Garrus’ shaking hands, the warmth of the candle, the soothing nature of Nelysa’s voice. Shepard committed it to her memory and vowed never to forget.  
  
Nelysa turned to Shepard, and squinted down at her omnitool. “Miss ah…” Nelysa gave her best effort, but Shepard winced as she murdered the pronunciation of her first name. “…Shepard, I now ask you these same questions. Do you vow to walk the path of life with Garrus? To be his best friend, his lover, and his confidante through all your days?”  
  
“I do.” She said, and suddenly her throat felt dry. Garrus hand squeezed her own again in support.  
  
“Do you vow to be his partner for life? To be there for him in sickness and in health? To support him in all that he does?”  
  
“Yes, I do.” Now her voice was cracking.  
  
Dammit.  
  
Garrus’ look indicated that he wasn’t much better at holding back the floodgates.  
  
“Do you take him to be your lawfully wedded husband?”  
  
She drew in a breath. Garrus looked at her, with an intensity in his stare that would have scared her two years ago.  
  
Now – it just looked like Garrus. Garrus, who loved her. Garrus, who she now knew would always love her.  
  
Garrus, her _husband_.  
  
Damn.  
  
No matter what happened – even if a god damned reaper burst through the ceiling and annihilated them all – it wouldn’t change that. Garrus loved her, and she loved him, and they were _married_.  
  
“I do.” She said, and she felt something wet roll down her cheek. A shaking turian hand moved to catch it, and she loved him all the more.  
  
He smiled.  
  
He was never going to let her live this down, was he?  
  
Well, at least she’d have the same amount of blackmail material.  
  
The asari picked up the ring box and pulled the larger of the two rings out to Shepard. She took Garrus’ ring in the palm of her hand.  
  
“Now, repeat after me. ‘With this ring, I give you a sign of our unending love. May it remind you of how much I love you today, tomorrow, and all the days to come. Please wear it as a symbol of all the promises we have made to one another on this day.”  
  
She repeated the words, watching Garrus’ face shift from hopeful to loving. She grabbed one of his long hands and slid the ring over his middle finger.  
  
He stared at it for a while.  
  
Then, he sighed.  
  
He made no move to continue the ceremony.  
  
Nelyna stared at Garrus.  
  
No move.  
  
Shepard stared at Garrus.  
  
Garrus stared at his ring. Slid it down his finger a bit, then back up. Made a happy humming noise in the back of his throat.  
  
Shepard cleared her throat. He looked up and flared out his mandibles in a proud smile.  
  
…And then promptly realized that they had been waiting for him to continue. “Ah, sorry.” He looked away. “Not really familiar with how this goes.”  
  
Nelyna laughed. “Now you know how an asari maiden feels before her first bonding.”  
  
She held our Shepard’s ring to Garrus.  
  
Garrus fumbled forward and grabbed Shepard’s smaller ring. He cleared his throat. “Please, ah, wear my ring. I uhm, I promise to love you today, tomorrow, every _damn_ day, for the rest of our lives. Please wear this as a reminder of my promise to, ah….” He swallowed. “Always have your six.”  
  
"Very nice vows, Mr. Vakarian." Nelyna grinned.  
  
Shepard had to agree, and tried not to cry.  
  
He held up the ring in one hand and Shepard’s hand in his other.  
  
He stared at her five fingers, and his three.  
  
He froze.  
  
“Fourth finger from the thumb.” She whispered.  
  
He relaxed a bit and put the ring around her fourth finger.  
  
She stared down at it.  It felt odd, different – slightly heavier.  
  
Garrus made a happy noise and when she looked up at him, his mandibles were quivering a bit.  
  
“I now pronounce you husband and wife!” Nelaya said. “You may kiss the bride.”  
  
“That, I can do.” Garrus whispered, and pulled her into a tight embrace. She nudged her forehead against his in the turian version of kissing and felt him keen at the gesture. He pressed his mouth to hers almost desperately and she pressed back, a hand massaging the soft hide on the back of his neck.  
  
“And rather well.” She whispered as they pulled apart. Garrus chuckled, no doubt remembering their words on the presidium - one turian woman, indeed.  
  
Garrus leaned forward and went for a second kiss. She pressed her mouth against his and felt his tongue lick lightly at the entrance to her mouth.  
  
It probably wasn’t proper to french kiss your husband at your wedding ceremony, she thought.  
  
But…fuck it. She was only going to have one wedding, and there was nothing more she wanted to do than kiss the snot out of him.  
  
She opened her mouth and Garrus gave a little moan as their tongues met. His hand came up to caress her cheek and she could feel the cold metal of the ring as his finger swept across her face. It hadn’t warmed up to the familiar heat of his hide yet.  
  
Nelaya coughed into her hand and, reluctantly, Shepard pulled apart from Garrus.  
  
When they separated, they were both breathing heavily.  
  
“Well, I don’t think you’ll need any help on the honeymoon.” The asari minister grinned.   “Aphrodite just pinged me your certificate is ready. You can pick it up on your way out.”  
  
“Thank you,” Garrus said, and swung his arm around Shepard. She leaned into his reassuring warmth and could feel him practically vibrate in happiness.  
  
“And you, Mr. and Mrs. Shepard-Vakarian.” Nelaya bowed toward them. “Be well, and treasure one another.”  
  
“Oh, we _will_.” She grabbed Garrus’ waist with her hand, and smirked a bit when Garrus jumped.  
  
They exited the small chapel as another nervous couple came in. Garrus waved to them. Aphrodite was in the hall, a handful of something small in her hands.  
  
As they came closer, she threw it at them. Rice. Of course.  
  
Shepard felt a bit of rice slip down her blouse and shivered.  
  
Garrus looked confused as to why a bunch of levo foodstuff was now all over his dress uniform. Shepard brushed a bit of it off his collar and winced – she’d be picking it out of his cowl for _days_ – and leaned over to whisper to him. “Human tradition.”  
  
Garrus still looked confused.  
  
Aphrodite payed no mind. “Yaaay!”  She clapped. “Congratulations! You are sooooo cute together!”  
  
Eros looked slightly less enthused, and beamed over a bill on his onmi-tool. “Your payment is due before you leave.”  
  
Garrus handed over a credit chip and nuzzled her cheek.  
  
Eros nodded, ran the chip, and handed it back to him. “All done. Enjoy your lives together.” He beamed them a copy of their marriage certificate and their receipt as he waved them off.  
  
Garrus pulled it up and smiled as Shepard’s arm wound around his own. “So…it’s in writing now.”  
  
“Yeah.” She kissed his cheek. “We’re official now, _Mr_. Shepard.”  
  
He leaned into her and shot her a heated look. “ _Mrs_. Vakarian.”  
  
Aphrodite clasped her hands together and grinned. “Oh! How romantic.” To Shepard’s surprise, she hugged Garrus, who stiffened, then Shepard. Aphrodite whispered into her ear. “Watch out for chaffing. Turians can be _very_ energetic.”  
  
“Uh…thanks.”  
  
The asari grinned as she bounded over to another couple.  
  
“So, Mrs. Shepard-Vakarian,” he whispered, nuzzling his cheek with her own. “Where do you want to go from here?”


	7. Chapter 7: The Long Way Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few close calls, Garrus and Shepard manage to make it back to the Normandy.

  
“So, _Mrs_. Shepard-Vakarian,” he whispered, nuzzling his cheek with her own. “Where do you want to go from here?”  
  
She leaned closer to him, feeling the solid warmth of him penetrate through her clothes. She stood up on the tips of her toes and pecked at his mouth-plates. He made a pleasing hum as her lips found his, and she felt his hand curl into her hair.  
  
God damn kissing genius, Garrus. Despite the rather large handicap of not having lips.  
  
“Home,” she murmured. “Take me home.”  
  
No time to spare. As soon as all their supplies were onboard, they’d be on their way to rendezvous with the quarian admiralty.  
  
That meant their honeymoon would be measured in hours, not days.  
  
Garrus nodded and grabbed her hand.  
  
They walked together, neither saying everything, for a few blocks. Both of them, she suspected, were still trying to parse what had just happened.  
  
She was _married_. To _Garrus_. Damn.  
  
Two years ago, she would never have seen this coming.  
  
Garrus made it exactly six blocks toward the Normandy before he abruptly stopped and pulled her into a dark alleyway.  
  
“Something going on? This is an unusual honeymoon destination.” She smirked, as her hands toyed with his collar.  
  
“Well, we’re not going to tell the kids about this stop.” Her heart beat faster at that – _kids_? - but before she could comment on it, he leaned down and pushed his mouthplates against her own.  
  
Any further words she might have had on the subject vanished when he put his talented tongue to use on her neck.  
  
“Can’t, ahh, can’t wait?” She asked. He chuckled, then licked that spot right behind her ear.  
  
“Oh, I can, but….” He gave her another lick around her very sensitive ears, and she shivered. He chuckled. Cocky-ass turian. “You know our best friend, the Shadow Broker, right?”  
  
“So she probably knows we’re married,” she murmured, stroking his cheek. “What’s the big deal? We’re not keeping it a secret, are we?”  
  
“No, but…” He licked a trail down her neck, and one of his hands pushed up the back of her jacket, giving his bare talons access to her back. “Think about Liara. Think about what she’ll do with that information.”  
  
“She’ll be happy for us,” she said, squirming a bit as Garrus’ talons gently massaged the small of her back.  
  
“Yes, and?”  
  
Her eyes widened as she realized exactly what Garrus meant.  
  
Liara never did things in half measures.  
  
“Oh fuck, much do you want to wager the entire crew is waiting for us, with a party?”  
  
“Now you get it.” His hands fumbled at her back, and she felt a talon dip under the horizon of her belt. “I don’t want our first time as a married couple to be in an alleyway, though.” A soft chuckle. “Just felt like maybe we needed to bleed off a bit of tension.”  
  
“Good idea.” Her hands wound around his shoulder, and she hated turian fashion with a passion. Since all his clothes involved bodysuits, there was no way for her to touch much of his skin without exposing everything.  
  
Her hand wavered over the zipper near the back of his cowl. IT was tempting, but it would be all too easy for someone to observe them.  
  
Turians had many natural talents. Blending into the background of the Citadel wasn’t one of them.    
  
“I thought you might like it,” he murmured as he gently moved her toward the wall, bracing her against the building. His brow touched hers and she rubbed her nose against his. “Not sure I could have kept my hands off of you if they insist on a party, otherwise. Figured it would be considered rude in human culture to lock yourself in a bathroom with the bride at your own wedding party.”  
  
“A bathroom isn’t any classier a honeymoon destination than an alleyway, Garrus.” He worked two of his fingers down her pants and squeezed her ass in response. She gasped.  
  
“I’ll make it up to you.” He grunted as she massaged his hips. “Promise.”  
  
“You’ll need to make up for the fact you are wearing far too many clothes first.” She said. She slowly ran one of her legs up his own and pressed it around his hips, an act that never failed to turn him on. She smirked in victory as he hissed and pressed closer to her, almost growling in desire. He was definitively out of his plates now.  
  
She could feel his erection pressed up against her thigh. If he’d just move a bit more to the right, she thought, she could at least open his fly and help him relieve some pressure….  
  
A bright light blinded her for a second and she blinked.  
  
“Fuck.” Garrus moaned, and for once his moaning had nothing to do with the movement of her fingers over his hips.  
  
“C-SEC.” Another distinctly turian voice flanged out. “C’mon kids, break it up and take it somewhere private.”  
  
Garrus separated from her with some quite obvious regret and smoothed down his uniform.  Shepard did the same.  
  
Perhaps if they didn’t cause any trouble, they’d be able to leave quickly.  
  
The turian officer advanced toward them and she bit back a sigh. No such luck.  
  
“And really, I’m surprised at you. Just because you’re out of the home system, doesn’t mean you just go crazy, Garrus.”  
  
The turian removed his helmet and Garrus raised a brow-plate in surprise. “Chellick? Not like you to be out on the streets, _Commissioner_.”  
  
“I could say the same for your behavior, _Preator_.” Chellick crossed his arms. “What’s the occasion?”  
  
“Just got married.” She held up her hand, her ring glittering in the darkness, as he slid an arm around her hips. He cocked his head towards her. “You remember my wife?”  
  
“Shepard, right?” She nodded. Chellick laughed. “Spirits, Vakarian, about damn time.”  
  
“I’m sorry?” Shepard frowned.  
  
Chellick’s mandibles flashed into a smile. “You should have heard him when he came back to us after traveling with you, Commander. Shepard this, Shepard that. It was _embarrassing_.”    
  
“I wasn’t that bad, Chellick.”  
  
“You were.” He nodded toward Shepard. “Still, good for you, Vakarian. I didn’t think you had a chance.”  
  
“Neither did I.” Garrus laughed. “She kinda blindsided me with - “  
  
“Hey.” There were things Commissioner Chellick did not need to know, and her bad pick-up lines were one of them. “I remember some mutually terrible flirting.”  
  
“So there was.” Garrus’ eyes glittered warmly at her for a moment, before turning his attention back to Chellick. “Anyway, that’s…”  
  
“A story for another time, I know.” Chellick sighed. “Damn, Vakarian, I was going to write you an obscenity ticket just to brag about how I caught you necking like a teenager with a human, but…” He waved them on. “Just go and get out of here. Consider it a wedding present.”  
  
“Thanks.” Garrus nodded and moved to leave the alleyway.  
  
“Congratulations Garrus, Shepard.” Chellick put his helmet back on and turned the other way. “Watch yourselves. And be well.”  
  
They watched as he left.  
  
“Well, that could have gone worse.” Garrus murmured, nuzzling his cheek with her own.  
  
“Could have gone better, too.” She sighed. “You’re still wearing far too many clothes.”  
  
He laughed and walked back toward the Normandy. “Not for long. I’ll fake an illness if I have to.”  
  
She imagined Garrus fainting dramatically into a wedding cake and laughed. “You really want to tell the kids our wedding night was spent in med bay?”  
  
“Well, I was thinking about sneaking out to our room after the party died down, but…” He shrugged. “We can change some details in the retelling, if there’s a naughty nurse fantasy you want to indulge.” His arm caressed her side and earned a little shiver that he saw and, from the spark in his eyes, clearly enjoyed. “I don’t mind.”  
  
“Mmm, is it wrong I want Liara to have gone to bed early tonight?”  
  
“No.” He hummed. “definitively not.”  
  
After a few more blocks, they finally arrived at the docks.  
  
Garrus stopped.  
  
“Oh, I forgot.” he said. She opened her mouth to ask him what he had forgotten, but Garrus, without warning, picked her up in his arms. She gave what she was sure was a undignified yelp as Garrus cradled her in his arms and touched his brow to hers.  
  
He squeezed her tightly and she heard – and _felt_ – a very pleased, vibrating noise coming from his chest.  
  
She was well aware that they were probably earning a few curious – and not so curious – stares. Possibly including other C-SEC officers who wouldn’t be as nice to them as Chellick had been.  
  
She didn’t care.  
  
“Garrus, what are you doing?”  
  
 “Taking you home,” he said, holding her close to him. “The extranet says I’m supposed to carry you.”  
  
“Most human grooms settle for just carrying the bride over the doorway, you know.”  
  
He looked at her and chuckled. “I’m not a human male.”  
  
“I know.” She stroked one of his mandibles lightly and grinned. “Believe me, I know.” Her hand dipped to the more sensitive underside of his mandibles and her grin grew wider as his hum stuttered.  
  
“Wicked woman.”  
  
“You shouldn’t talk about your wife like that.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against him.  
  
“Mmmm.” He nuzzled her cheek. “I’ll make it up to my _wife_ when we get home.”  
  
“Do you like calling me that?”  
  
“Still trying to remind myself that it actually happened.” His cheek nuzzled hers.  
  
“Well, it did, so get used to it, _husband_.” Garrus’ eyes widened as she squirmed until she was able to easily massage the soft hide at the back of his neck. His grip tightened. “You’re gonna be stuck with me now.”  
  
“Well, the extranet says 50% of human marriages do end in divorce…” He drawled. She slapped his shoulder and he chuckled. “But I don’t see that happening here.”  
  
“Me either.” She smiled. “Don’t think most couples have been through as much as we have.”  
  
“Well, you know, once you defeat one crazy madman hellbent on annihilating all life from the known universe, I hear it’s pretty smooth sailing.”  
  
“Hey, we’ve done that twice.”  
  
“Mmm, exactly.” His mouth met hers; she closed her eyes and savored the kiss.  
  
She thought of the first time they’d gone to these docks together. Hard to believe that she’d married the young C-SEC detective who kept babbling at her about how thrilled he was to be free of C-SEC.  
  
“What are you thinking about?” He said, a hand stroking her side. “You seem to have gone a few relays away.”  
  
“Thinking of you and me. When we first met.”  
  
“Oh?” He raised a brow. “Something on your mind?”  
  
“Just thinking about the first time we went down these docks together.”  
  
“Oh, spirits.” He laughed. “I hoped you had forgotten.”  
  
“Mmm, Commander Shepard, you have a very nice ship! Have you had the guns calibrated?” She teased, her fingers gliding in the spaces between the spines of his fringe.  
  
“Hmph. Like you were any better.” He cleared his throat. “Oh, detective, you should see our Javelins! Even the MAKO is equipped with a 155 mm mass accelerator cannon!”  
  
Ok, that impersonation was just awful. Worse than his Liara. She did _not_ sound like that.  
  
He shifted her in his arms as he keyed in the door code on the Normandy’s decontamination unit. “In retrospect, the minute I learned you could hold your own on the gun talk – that was when I should have realized you were the woman I was going to marry.”  
  
She laughed. “You didn’t like me back then.”  
  
“Sure I did.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his mandibles as he walked into the Normandy’s decontamination room. “I was always asking you for advice or talking to you about my cases. I talked to you about my dad. Never did that with Chellick.”  
  
“No, I mean…you weren’t uh, in love with me, back then.”  
  
“Well, would you have even had time? Between Liara and Kaidan…”  
  
She groaned. “Don’t remind me. That was awkward.”  
  
Garrus cleared his throat. “Hey Commander, I just want you to know that I, uh, I like adventurous women.” His Kaidan impression was not much better than his Liara one, but it was better than his Commander Shepard impression.    
  
“Stop it.” Her command was probably undermined by the fact that, bad impression or not, she laughed at it anyway.  
  
He switched to a more familiar impression. “By the Goddess, Commander! I was hoping I would run into you! There are some misconceptions about asari sexuality I was hoping I could go over with you. Um. If you have time.”  
  
“Stop it. It was embarrassing enough to live that, let alone your retelling of it. You only got the version of it from the MAKO. You didn’t see them follow me around. _They came into my room, Garrus._ ”  
  
“Oh spirits.” He laughed. “See? You never would have noticed, even if I had.” He paused. “Although, I never did figure out how you got them both to back down almost overnight.”  
  
“Oh.” She blushed. “I may have gotten mad and told them something really inappropriate.”  
  
“Did you threaten to shoot them?”  
  
“Uh, no.” She bit her lip. “I uh, I may have told them that I wasn’t going to choose between them and somehow that got interpreted as an invitation for a threesome.”  
  
“Oh, spirits.” Garrus laughed.  
  
“It kinda worked anyway, though, because neither of them were up for that, and they left me alone after that. I never bothered to clarify.”  
  
“Mmm. I always wondered why Kaidan didn’t uh, well, have a bigger reaction to us being …together. I mean,  all the jealous looks he had whenever you took Liara with us on a mission.”  
  
The decontamination unit cleared, and she grinned at him. “Speaking of Liara…Looks like this is the moment of truth.”


	8. Chater 8: Home At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus and Shepard finally make it home, celebrate, and make future plans.

“Speaking of Liara…Looks like this is the moment of truth.”   
  
He nodded and carried her out into the CIC, which was pitch black and all but abandoned. She could hear Joker and EDI talking in the cockpit, but Traynor and the rest of the bridge crew were gone.   
  
“Not sure if this is the normal night cycle crew or just a suspicious lack of people.”  
  
“Could be both.” She whispered. He pinged the elevator and pressed the button to go to her floor.   
  
“Garrus?” She folded her arms around his neck.  
  
“Mmmm?”  
  
“In case there is a party, well…” She leaned close and kissed him, going straight for the kill by rubbing the back of his neck with her fingers as her tongue touched his.   
  
He only broke away, she noticed, when the door chimed.  
  
She braced for a booming “Surprise!” from James or a dainty “Congratulations!” from Liara but found the small hallway outside of their room completely deserted.  
  
She supposed it truly was  _their_  room, now.  
  
“Oh spirits.” Garrus breathed. “Please let Liara have failed to notice this.”  
  
She laughed and pressed in the keycode for the captain’s quarters. Garrus carried her in the doorway, and nuzzled the top of her head affectionately before gently putting her down on her feet.   
  
She looked around. The nice thing about living in quarters on a ship like the Normandy was there there certainly wasn’t space for anyone to hide in them.  
  
And there was nobody in her room, other than herself and six feet of very eager turian.  
  
Perfect.  
  
“I think we got away with it!” Shepard grinned in triumph.  
  
“I wouldn’t say that.” Garrus murmured. He was staring down at the table across from her bed, and as she walked over to join him, she saw him pick up a datapad.   
  
“What’s wrong?”  
  
He looked at her, shook his head, and stepped aside. She looked down.  
  
On their table was a small platter, with  two ration bars – one dextro, one levo – and a bottle of quite fancy looking asari liquor. She picked it up and raised an eyebrow at the label – it was expensive, and dual chirality.   
  
“Did you do this?”  
  
He shook his head again and handed her the datapad.  She glanced down.   
  
_Dear Shepard,_  
  
_I was monitoring the news feeds from the Citadel for mentions of you – as I always do during the night cycle._    
  
"That’s a bit creepy." Shepard murmured, but she knew Liara’s heart was in the right place. She wouldn’t argue with Liara silencing any gossip hounds desperate to drag the Alliance through the muck.  
  
_I happened to find a marriage certificate license in  your name. I thought it was a joke, until I saw your middle name – and I know that’s not public knowledge._  
  
_While I’m disappointed you and Garrus ran off without telling the rest of the crew, I can understand your reasoning. And I wanted to extend my deepest congratulations._  
  
_I know you two no doubt want some time to yourselves. Which is why, of course, I plan on holding off on telling the crew until you give me permission to do so._  
  
I’ve been saving a couple of bottles of asari liquor for the completion the crucible, but this is news worth some honey mead.   
  
_Enjoy it for me._  
  
_\- Liara_  
  
_P.S. I also included breakfast for you, because I know neither of you are going to remember to eat unless you’re reminded._  
  
While she was reading the message, Garrus had wandered away from her, moving over to his side of her – no, their  - bed. She glanced up at him, as he sat down.  
  
He waved a finger towards her, giving her his version of a “come hither” look.  
  
“You trying to seduce me, Garrus?”  
  
“Is it working?” He asked, his voice pitched in the husky sub-tones he only ever used for one _particular_ type of calibration.  
  
“Always.” She hopped onto the bed and leaned over and kissed his nose. “Can’t resist that Vakarian charm.”  
  
“Mmmm.” He nuzzled his face against hers.   
  
“I feel a bit bad about not telling Liara,” she murmured, running a hand down his tunic as he pulled her closer. “She is a good friend.”  
  
“We’ll talk to her in the morning, tell her to spread the good news.” Garrus’ hand stopped on her waist. She smirked when his fingers curved inwards to grip her. “But…there are some benefits to nobody knowing right now, you know.”   
  
She put the bottle down on the nightstand. “Mmm, what kind of benefits?”   
  
He didn’t answer her, but gave her a soft purring noise as he ran a hand down her thigh.   
  
She chuckled. “Alright, c’mon big guy. Time to finish what you started in that alleyway.”   
  
And with that, she pushed him down onto the mattress.  
  
Garrus fell with a soft chuckle, then reached back to shove a couple pillows under his fringe. His hands reached up to start unbuttoning her jacket.

  
She watched him for a few seconds and tried desperately not to laugh.  
  
Earth garments still eluded him. Especially the removal of said Earth garments.   
  
Still, he looked prepared to conquer her buttons tonight, judging by his “calibrations in progress” face.  
  
After a few tries – and one memorable incident where he,  _somehow_ , managed to fasten one button back on after having successfully unbuttoned it – he growled in frustration.   
  
She took control, unbuttoning the last few buttons with practiced ease.  
  
Garrus was in a hurry. He didn’t even bother to make a sarcastic comment about it. Instead, he just pulled her jacket off her shoulders, flinging it toward the fish tank.  
  
He reached the button-down shirt underneath it and sighed.  
  
“What is it with you humans and your completely inept clothing? Why would you design an item that takes this long to take off?”  
  
She chuckled and undid the buttons, and Garrus once again all but threw it off of her.   
  
His mandibles flared as he confronted his final nemesis, and Shepard raised an eyebrow. “You like?”  
  
Garrus was not exactly a breast man. He'd never complained that she had them, but she also never caught him looking at them. Certainly not in the hungry way he glanced at her hips and waist when he thought she wasn’t looking.  
  
But he was looking now. Blue and black lace, in a simple geometric pattern that showcased her curves.  
  
His eyes danced over the blue and black lace for a moment, before returning to hers. “I very much like, but…” He leaned forward and began to wrestle with her bra’s hooks. “I like it more off, right now.”  
  
She heard a soft click as he managed to unhook one of the clasps and he gave her a proud grin.  
  
He gave it a tug. He successfully managed to pull it toward him a bit but the bra didn’t separate, as Garrus had forgotten the second clasp. He frowned.  
  
She leaned back and did it for him, before promptly sending it flying back toward the tank with the rest of her clothes.  
  
“You’re going to have to get better at that, Vakarian.” He leaned up to kiss her neck and hummed as she ran a hand over his cowl, bunching up his tunic and pulling it forward. “What are you going to do when I’m old and arthritic and need your help to get dressed in the morning?”  
  
He leaned back to pull his arms up so she could remove the tunic, and, after she did so, gave her a blatant up and down before moving back to her.   
  
“You’ll go naked,” He stated with startling certainly, tracing the line of her shoulder with one hand as the other slithered around her waist. “It’ll be a good morale booster.”  
  
“For who?” She laughed.  
  
“Me,” He kissed her neck. “Definitively me.”  
  
“Okay then,” she murmured as she caressed the underside of his fringe. “But what about the kids you mentioned? Gonna let them run around naked, too?”  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous, Shepard,” he huffed. “They’ll wear proper, sensible tunics or bodysuits. Like  _normal_  people.”  
  
“Uh huh.” She nuzzled his nose. “Better hope they all look like you, sweetie, ‘cause you’re not going to be able to get those tunics in human sizes.”  
  
“Well, I kind of thought the kids would look more like you.” He flicked his mandibles outward as he ran a long finger across her cheekbones. “Beautiful, strong little girls, just like their mother.”  
  
He got a kiss for that, but the comment reminded her he was still wearing his undersuit.   
  
Spirits, she hated turian clothing. 15 buckles on his undersuit.   
  
Who wore clothing with fifteen buckles? And then complained humans were inefficient?  
  
Her husband, evidently.  
  
Damn. Her  _husband_.  
  
She started tugging at the first one, near his neck. He looked down at her fingers but kept his hands focused on her body instead of his own.  
  
“Of course,” Garrus murmured, “the idea of you holding a baby turian does have a certain…appeal, as well.”  
  
She scrunched her nose as she released the first clasp. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby turian, actually.”  
  
He laughed. “They stay in the home system, mostly. A few, on the Citadel.”  
  
“Mmm.” She managed to get the second clasp, revealing a bit more brown and silver hide. “What do they look like?”  
  
“Turians. Well, miniature ones.”  
  
The third and fourth clasps gave way, and she could see the edge of his chest plate now, and the beginning of the dip of his waist. “Come on, Garrus. That’s just like saying human babies look like humans. Duh. Of course they do. Be more specific.”  
  
“Well, if you insist on seeing one…” He drawled, and reached over to the nightstand, flicking a datapad to life. She saw him transfer a file from his omnitool, then handed it to her. “That’s a newborn.”  
  
She picked it up and her jaw dropped. Garrus had been right – it was a miniature turian – but he had left out one key detail.  
  
_Feathers_. It was an unbelievably small turian – mostly carapace, teeny tiny arms and legs – but it had  _feathers_  all over its body.  
  
It was ungodly cute, for a thing with that many sharp teeth. Like a baby duck, if it had been crossbred with a velociraptor.  
  
Garrus fidgeted, uncomfortable with her scrutiny of the photo.  
  
“They’re not that ugly, Shepard,” He murmured.  
  
“Feathers,” she said.  
  
“What?” He tilted his head to the side.  
  
“Your babies have feathers!”   
  
“Oh. Yeah. So?” He shrugged. “Human babies have hair, but you don’t see me making a big deal about that. And the feathers do fall off after a year or so.”  
  
“They’re adorable.”   
  
Garrus stared at her.   
  
“What? They are!”   
  
“Mmm.” His eyes met hers. “Might have to have one of each, then.”  
  
“Maybe more than one of each,” she murmured as she undid the two clasps on each of his arms. “Always wanted a big family.”  
  
“Well…there will be a lot of war orphans.” He grinned as he shrugged off the top of his under-suit – halfway there, now. “And we seem to be doing good with the ones we’re raising now…”  
  
She paused as she flicked open the buckle at his hips, and raised an eyebrow. “Something I should know about, G?”  
  
He laughed. “Grunt, for one.”  
  
“How are we his parents? I’m his battlemaster. You’re his battlemaster’s mate. We’re  _not_  his parents.”  
  
“Shepard, when a Krogan brings you a macaroni painting and asks if you’re proud of him, you’re his mother.”  
  
“How did you know about the macaroni…” She glared. “You helped him.”  
  
“It was that or listen to his stories about the six hundred ways he could pull off my fringe.” He started moving his hands to her waist, and she knew he was beginning to get impatient. “Clearly, I picked the better option. At great personal sacrifice.”  
  
"Hanging out with Grunt was a great personal sacrifice?"  
  
"Oh, no. It took a week to get all those noodles cleaned out of the battery. But I think the surprise was totally worth it.”  
  
“Why, Garrus Vakarian, you are full of surprises.” She shifted to undo the four clasps on his left leg. She felt Garrus finger’s stumbling over the button at the top and smiled when he managed to unbutton it.  
  
“You know it.” He murmured. He continued tugging on her pants – a signal for her to move so he could pull them off entirely.  
  
She ignored it in favor of liberating his crotch from the tight pull of the fabric.   
  
She gave the top of his quite-painful looking tent a kiss, and was rewarded with a soft growl.

Garrus lifted his hips so she could pull the fabric down.  
  
Even with his cooperation, she had to lean back to avoid getting pistol wiped, so to speak. Garrus was definitively not just ready, but eager to go. “Hello there,” she murmured, and bent her head for a taste.  
  
“P-p-pants.” Garrus spluttered, and tugged insistently on her hips.  
  
She sighed in mock-irritation, then got up for a second, peeling down what was left of her uniform and throwing it back toward the fish. Garrus’ fingers hooked her underwear and pulled it down as well, and she heard his low chuckle when she stepped out of them.   
  
She moved back to straddle him, stopping only for a moment to skim his under-suit off his legs.  
  
She toss it back towards their tangled mess of clothing.  
  
He grinned as she sat on his hips. He gently removed her kepi and put it on the nightstand.  
  
“Now, where were we…” He murmured, but she didn’t have time to answer before he sat up and kissed her, his hands moving to cup her face as his mouth claimed hers.  
  
Ah well. She was quite sure it was a rhetorical question anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thanks to those who nominated -- and voted -- for this story in the 5th People's Choice Awards as the Mass Effect Kink Meme. Thank you so much! The nomination was a great honor.


	9. Chapter 9: Translations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard and Garrus enjoy their honeymoon, and Garrus gives Shepard a unique gift.

Garrus wasn’t interested in talking. His tongue slipped inside her mouth, moving in ways that had once been strange but were now intimately familiar. She might never have had a man’s tongue literally wrap around hers and squeeze before him, but now?  
  
It turned her on. And he knew it.  
  
She didn’t have that long, serpentine tongue that he did, but he still moaned when she flicked her shorter, stubbier one against his.   
  
He loved her anyway, different body or not.  
  
She’d been nervous about that, once – that he wouldn’t accept her, wouldn’t want her, not in the way she’d ached for him. But that had been an issue they’d dealt with, and – judging by the way his hands were curling tightly around her waist – dealt with well.  
  
He was more direct than usual tonight, one long finger almost immediately skirting her folds. He made a pleased note at the moisture he found, his mandibles flaring into a triumphant grin.  
  
He opened his mouth, no doubt to give her a smart-ass comment.  
  
She smirked and derailed him with a trail of kisses, starting with the tips of his mandibles and slowly moving to his neck. Whatever he was going to say vanished, as his comment became nothing more than a duel-toned, breathy moan.  
  
He leaned into her for a moment, his keel brushing up against her breasts in a way that made her shiver. A second later, one of his fingers thumbed a nipple, a bit of an apologetic look on his face.   
  
“Sorry,” he murmured. “Forgot.”  
  
She smacked him lightly on the back as he lowered his face. Whatever comment she was going to make on him forgetting her breasts vanished. She gasped and his big blue eyes shone up at her with a loving urgency.   
  
He moved slowly, alternating that damn lizard tongue  between her breasts as she writhed under him. As always, Garrus had an eye for details and knew exactly how she liked it. The ache between her legs was growing almost unbearable.  
  
“Garrus, you fucking tease.” She growled, and felt his pleased purring reply as much as she heard it. He raised his head slightly, taking advantage of his bigger frame by trailing a _long_ lick across her clavicle.   
  
worse yet, he was good at this little game, and he knew it.  
  
He made blatant eye contact with her before sliding his head back down, returning to her breasts.  
  
Two could play at that game.   
  
He wanted to tease? She’d show him a tease.  
  
She grabbed at the sensitive skin behind the plates at the back of his head and grinned in triumph when his purr turned into a groan.   
  
That snapped his resolve, and he ground his cock against her.   
  
Then, his hands were lifting her with a desperate urgency, holding her above his cock.   
  
 “In a hurry, huh?”  
  
“Like you’re not.” He huffed. “I've been waiting for this for _hours_.”  
  
“Poor baby.” She scoffed, and ran a hand down his fringe as she braced against him, one hand moving to help align his body with hers. “Carrying so much tension.” She moved forward, her clit dragging across his cock. “Bet you need some help getting rid of that.”  
  
He whimpered and moved his hips to thrust into her, but she moved, denying him entry.   
  
He growled.   
  
“Dirty pool, Shepard.”  
  
She smirked.   
  
“You deserve it.” she murmured into his ear as she rocked back and forth, letting his cock feel her wetness but never quite letting him breach her. “You were talking to Chellick for so _long_ when all I wanted was to get your pants off. Then, you nearly tell him about _reach_ and _flexibility_. And then, when we get home, you do the world’s _worst_ impression of me.”  
  
He grabbed her hips and growled. “Not true. Conrad Verner does the _worst_ impression of you.”  
  
“Well, you’re awful close.” She softened the blow by letting his head slip inside, and grinned as she felt his hands tighten around her waist. “Honestly, it’s worse than your Liara.”  
  
“By the Goddess,” he said – well, half groaned – as she slid down, bringing them together.   
  
She touched his face, and he grinned, mandibles pressing against her fingers. Then, he flipped her over, ignoring her surprised giggle and firmly pushing his hips down until they met her own.   
  
“I think that’s enough of _that_.”  
  
“Hmph.” She wanted to have a snappy comeback, but she was  distracted by the feel of him, warm and deep and hers.  
  
 He moved his hips, slowly moving against her, and she gave him a long, breathy moan as he began to thrust in earnest.  
  
He braced his forehead against her own for a second, his breath coming faster and faster as he picked up the pace.   
  
She nuzzled his nose, and felt him keen as she did. “Shepard…” He whispered.  
  
“Yeah, big guy?” She wrapped her arms tight around his waist, and heard him hum as they moved together as one.   
  
Despite the chafing, she had to admit – her favorite moments were when they were like this,where she could feel him all around him.  
  
“You’re amazing.” He nuzzled her cheek with his own as he continued moving inside her. “And I, I….” He turned to look at her and swallowed. “I need to tell you, I-I-I lo-”  
  
“Sssh,” She raised a hand to his lips, silencing him with a gesture. “I know, I know.” He’d never said it, but she’d never thought he’d needed to.   
  
He loved her. She knew he did. That was enough.   
  
She didn’t give a shit about whether he said the words or not.  
  
“Still…” He panted into her ear. “Not right. Humans…”  
  
“Shhh.” She cradled his head in her hands as he thrust into her. “Don’t tell me. Show me.”  
  
His eyes sparked, relief transparent in them, and then he was all over her. They moved with his mouth on hers, his hands wrapped tight around her.   
  
He was good at showing her. _Too_ good.   
  
She felt a heavy pleasure building in her veins, but fought against it.   
  
She tried to hang on to him as long as possible, to delay pushing over the cliff before him.   
  
Garrus - with supreme, aching gentleness – circled her clit with his long fingers and she fell.  
  
She moaned his name into his neck and that, of all things, was his undoing. He groaned, his grip tightening on her.  
  
She held him in her arms, and felt him shudder and pulse inside of her, filling her with his warmth.   
  
He settled on top of her for a moment, panting. She ran a hand over his fringe as he laid on her chest and felt content.   
  
She’d expected him to drop off to sleep quickly – Garrus had learned breasts made excellent pillows.  
  
To her surprise, he got up, reaching for their nightstand.   
  
She was going to ask him where, exactly, he was going, but was stunned when he reached for his omni-tool – and disabled his translator.  
  
“Garrus…? What are you…?”  
  
“Shepard, I…talk now?” He sounded unsure of himself. “Sorry. Your language…” He shook his head. “Only know…little.” Without the translator overlaying his words, she could hear both his larynxes– both the words said, and the words unsaid.  
  
His voice had always been beautiful – but being able to hear all of it made it downright _gorgeous_.  
  
“When did you…?”  
  
“Sorry. No…understanding. Language…very little. Shepard listen?”  
  
She nodded. “Yes.”  
  
His mandibles fluttered against his face. “When you prison, I…researched? Vids. And human males always…they saying…this…phrase? And human females always happy. When they say it.”  
  
Vids. He’d learned bits and pieces  by watching _vids_.   
  
“Garrus…” She reached out a hand to touch his cheek, hoping that he’d understand.  
  
“Turians different. Don’t need.” His hand caressed her own. “Understood. In sub-vocals…meanings? Like that. But you no understand. Deaf ears.”   
  
“I understand well enough.” She murmured.   
  
He shook his head and smiled and she knew he understood the sentiment if not the words.   
  
“Want to say. On Citadel, you say…and me, so happy. So happy.” He closed his eyes. “But hard to say. Not…natural.”   
  
His mandibles twitched again, which was a sign that he was struggling to keep his nerves under control. “Turians…no words like this.”  
   
“You don’t need - “  
  
“No. No need. Want.” His hand squeezed her own, still holding on to his cheek.   
  
She swallowed, strangely nervous. and he nodded. “Want to say…”   
  
He closed his eyes. “Love you. I…I love you, Shepard.”  
  
She made a soft noise that, she thought, sounded disgustingly close to a sob. Garrus frowned. “You…words no… happy?” Without the translator, she could hear how much his sub-vocals rose with panic.  
  
“No.” She shook her head and sniffed. “You make me _very_ happy.”  
  
He really was her one thing that had gone right.  
  
At that, she flung herself at him, felt one of his long arms – reach, indeed – wrap around her. “Love you too,” She murmured against him.  
  
That he definitively understood, judging by how he held her tighter.  
  
With his other arm, he reached over and reactivated the translator. “Sorry. I wish I was better at your language.”  
  
“That was the most god damn romantic thing anyone has ever done. Did you really learn all that from vids?”  
  
“Mostly. I tried watching everything I could to do with couples or …families.” He sighed. “Wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again, but if I did…I wasn’t going sit there smiling at you.”  
  
She smirked. “I think we could find something to do.”  
  
“I know we could but…It bothered me.” He looked away. “That we didn’t say it…before.”  
  
She threaded her hands through his own.   
  
“Shepard, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his own. “Saved my ass more times than I can count.”  
  
“I’m sorry I don’t know how to return the gift.” She grimaced. “I tried looking up turian language books, but the Alliance didn’t deem that part of the library package for prisoners. I know some ranks, your name and…Adfinitas. That’s about it.”  
  
“It’s enough, for now.” He curled an arm around her. “We don’t have words like that, anyway.”   
  
“I want to learn, though. Won’t your father be impressed, when I come up to him at our _adfinitas_ speaking fluent turian?”  
  
“My father…?” He coughed. “That…might stun him. A bit.”  
  
“Better teach me then.” She grinned. “Besides, have to be fluent before the kids come along. Can’t be punishing them and then have you promise them ice cream in turian the second my back is turned.”  
  
He chuckled.   
  
“Afraid daddy will spoil them, huh?” He raised a brow plate.  “I’m not the one who gave Grunt seven helpings of tummy tickling Tuchanka sauce on baby’s first citadel trip…”  
  
Ok, so maybe Garrus had a point.  
  
But how was she supposed to know that Krogan were surprisingly good at making puppy dog eyes?  
  
“So, you’ll learn basic, too. More of it, anyway.” She compromised, threading her fingers through his. “And we’ll teach them both our languages.”  
  
“Yeah. Sounds good. Shepard…” He made a high whining noise in the back of his throat. “Is it wrong…to be so happy? The universe is going to hell, my family is still in danger, and all I can think about is you and me -  our future. It feels wrong. Selfish.”  
  
“Not wrong to have hope.” She kissed his scarred mandible, and his arms gripped her harder.   
  
“We all need something to get through this. And you better god damn live through this war, Vakarian. Not gonna be able to paint that nursery without you. Can’t reach the ceiling.”  
  
“Yeah.” He stroked her cheek. “Can’t promise you anything there. But I’ll try. And you…” His mandibles twitched. “I know I can’t make you promise to be sensible but…Maybe try not to take on an Atlas with your fists again?”  
  
“I’ll headbutt it next time.” She kissed his nose.   
  
He frowned. “Not what I meant, Shepard.”  
  
“I know.” She smiled. “We both know I can’t promise that I’ll live to see the end of this any more than you can. But I’m gonna try. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure we both come home alive. And if the worst does happen, I…I’m happy we’ve at least had this.”  
  
“Yeah.” He shifted back onto the bed, laying down on the pillows. “Same here.”  
  
She took a moment to admire him, laying naked in front of her without a hint of self-consciousness.   
  
“So, now that we got the emotional crap out of the way…”   
  
She straddled his waist, and grinned when his fingers instantly moved to her hips. “What do you say we live it up and to go for round 2?”  
  
“Mmm, well…I won the last round. Guess it’s fare to give you another shot. Tell you what…Why don’t we see who can hold out the longest…say, best 2 of 3?”   
  
“You’re on,” She said, and leaned down to kiss him.


	10. Chapter 10: Harsh Deadlines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus and Shepard enjoy their honeymoon, until their duties call them away from it, at least.

She woke up a bit sore and a lot satisfied, her head lazily buried at the edge of Garrus’ cowl. It was oddly softer than usual. She opened her eyes.

He’d put his undersuit back on – must have been cold, she thought. Poor baby. His mandibles were flickering in his sleep, and she smiled as she slowly extracted herself from his grip.

Or tried to.

“Mmph.” He gripped her tighter. “Stay.”

“I’m on duty in an hour.” She murmured, and was immediately silenced by a turian tongue persistently lapping at her mouth.

“Garrus,” she said – or tried to say, it came out more like Gabbus – as he growled and kissed her harder.

“Just married. They’ll understand if you’re late.” This time, she pulled an arm across his cowl and pulled him closer.

His omni-tool beeped with the ringtone he used for incoming comms and he groaned.

“Dammit.” He bent lower, kissing her neck.

“Are you going to get that?”

“Busy.” He growled.

She ran a hand through his fringe. “You should see who it is. What if it’s Solana or your dad…?”

He pushed himself up on one arm and threw on his tunic. “Okay. But if it’s Joker asking me for roleplaying scenarios, you owe me.”

“Okay.” She kissed his nose. “If it’s Joker indulging a human/turian fetish, I’ll make it very, very worth your while tonight.” She left a trail of kisses down his neck before slowly withdrawing.

He groaned. “Please don’t remind me of what I’m missing.”

She grinned and rolled off the bed, heading to the shower. She could feel Garrus eyes on her as she went, comm be damned.

The shower was short, perfunctory. She could hear Garrus talking in the background, which meant the call had been important.

He was still on when she got out, much to her surprise. Must have been very important.

She moved slowly in the background, carefully moving to the cabinet for her clothing to avoid Garrus’ omni-camera.

She could still see the person calling though, and that nearly made her crash into the cabinet, careful walk be damned. A blue-eyed, female turian with Garrus’ markings was standing in front of a communications room. Her arms were held tight to her chest and her volume was loud, sheepish turian recruits scurrying in the background be damned.

“…And you never even thought that maybe dad and I would want to be there when you got – whatever the strange human word is for bonding? Did you give her your marks, too? Or are you going fully bracatus and skipping the adfinitas?”

“Solana, I - “ Garrus’ mandibles were pulled tight in distress. He wasn’t able get another word in, as his sister angrily swiped at the air .

Shepard had the feeling that Garrus himself might have gotten a taste of that wrath if Solana had been in the same solar system.

“And you didn’t even tell us yourself, no, this is just like when you disappeared for two years. You just go off and do your own thing and you don’t tell anyone, you selfish bastard!” Solana waved an angrily finger. “It’s just like last time.”

“It’s not - “

“It IS!” She stomped her foot. An ensign barely on the edge of the camera glanced their way, mandibles pulled tight ot his chin in discomfort. “You just walked back into our lives with a face like a krogan and acted like nothing even happened! We love you, dammit, so we turned a blind eye to your disappearing act and now you’re doing it again! First you choose to serve on a human ship - “

“Victus asked - “

“I don’t care what the official reason is, we both know that was a favor you cashed in. Now you’ve gone and got yourself married to to a human who we haven’t even met? Are you in your right mind?”

Garrus stared at his sister, mandibles pulled so tight she was pretty sure that they were going to wind up in his mouth if he pulled them any closer. Solana, oblivious, continued railing against him.

“I don’t know this woman. Frankly, you can’t have spent that much time with her – so I don’t know how you know her either. Except perhaps in lectulo. And given how commitment-phobic you’ve been with your family, frankly, I’m worried this woman may have you by the testicles. And not just in a way you like - “

“Solana!” Shepard didn’t need to understand his subvocals to know Garrus was miserable. His body language said everything: he kept his head lowered and didn’t even glance at her as she picked up her uniform and rapidly began re-buttoning it.

Solana continued her diatribe, oblivious to her brother’s feelings. Garrus stopped interjecting, and just stared downwards. Now he looked utterly miserable. At that point, Shepard felt the need to step in.

The council were already asking her to solve everybody else’s problems, after all.

She ought to at least be able to work on her family’s.

Garrus might be right – there were too many buttons on her clothes. By the time she’d finished dressing, Solana had run out of steam and simply folded her arms, seemingly waiting for Garrus to apologize for every wrong he’d ever committed.

Shepard moved to the edge of the screen and took a deep breath. Garrus looked up at her and wordlessly held out a hand. She grabbed it and stepped onto the bed, in line with the camera.

“Hi. I’m Commander Shepard-Vakarian of the Normandy, Alliance Navy.” She wound her hand with Garrus’ own, giving him some support. “And…I’m your brother’s wife.”

“Medical Technician Vakarian, of the Ursa, Turian Hierarchy.” Solana’s eyes were just as intense as her brothers, and she felt them sizing her up. She didn’t blink. Solana didn’t either. “I guess we’re related now, although since my brother didn’t even see fit to inform us of this match…”

Garrus squeezed her hand. “Solana, I didn’t mean to anger you, but insulting - “

“What were you meaning to do? Because maybe somehow you weren’t raised turian like I was, Garrus, but getting bonded without family input is a pretty big insult.”

“He wanted you there, Solana.” Shepard said, trying to cool her sister-in-law’s ire. “That’s why we’re waiting for the adfinitas.”

“You – you’re doing the adfinitas?”

“Yeah,” she said, and slide her arm around Garrus. “Soon as we can meet and be properly introduced.”

“Good.” Solana nodded. “That ought to comfort dad, at least. But why even bother with human - “

“There’s…a big chance we’re not going to make it through this, Sol. None of us. And…I…”

“No.” Solana swiped her arm towards her brother. “Don’t talk like that. I don’t want to listen to you fucking saying goodbye again.”

“Sol, listen. You said I should be there for mom and I got there too late…I regret that. I didn’t want to regret not being able to bond with her, too.”

The ire in Sol’s eyes cooled. “So you…care for her?”

“Yeah.” His eyes rose past Solana and toward Shepard. “I have for a while now.”

“I care for your brother very much.” She leaned into him. “Very, very much.”

Solana was quiet for a moment, processing. “Ok. I’ll run damage control with dad. But!” She waved a talon towards them. “You both owe me. Big time. Big big time. You, sister-wife – can you shoot?”

“She’s my wife.” Garrus said, as if it was obvious. “Of course she can shoot.”

“Ok. For the inevitably difficult task of getting dad to accept your very new human wife, I want an afternoon date at Armax. All three of us, gold challenges. Omni-tools allowed. And you!“ She pointed at Garrus. “You are buying me all the food and liquor I want, and so help me if there is one word about it going to my hips, I will tell dad you’re the one who broke his - “

“Okay, okay.” Garrus raised his hands in a peace-keeping gesture that Shepard guessed he’d had a considerable amount of practice doing. “All the junk food and dextro-beer you can inhale.”

“I’m calling sniper rifle.” Shepard said, and Garrus looked at her. “What?”

“Good. ‘Bout time someone made him get up close and personal.” Solana straightened up. “I look forward to it, then. And don’t forget, you’re honor-bound now.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He put his head in his hands.

There was a beep in the background of the other ship. “Shit. Our time’s up, I’m afraid.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Well…I’ll talk to you later, Sol.”

“Yeah.” Solana’s eyes flickered from her brother’s eyes to Shepard’s. “It was nice to meet you, Commander. And do make sure my brother lives and actually bothers to make another call.”

“I will.” She smiled. “I promise.”

“Promise, huh? I think I just might like you.” Solana chuckled. “Well….be well, brother…sister.”

“Be well.”

The image faded, and they were left alone. She rubbed his shoulder and felt him lean into her touch.

“Thanks.” He groaned. “Thought she was gonna kill me.”

“Mmm. I wouldn’t let her.”

“I know.”  
“How did she find out, anyway?”

“Victus called her. He saw the paperwork and wanted to offer his congratulations on you joining our family.”

He leaned forward to kiss her and leaned her into the pillows.

“Mmm, Garris. as much as I want to play hide the turian tongue in every place on a human female it can possibly fit, I’m on duty in ten minutes.”

“I can fit this tongue an awful lot of places in ten minutes.” As if to illustrate, he licked a hot trail down her ears and neck.

“I already put on my uniform!” She squealed.

“You can always put it on again.” His voice growled. “Besides, it would be an insult to me, as your husband, if you didn’t go on the CIC absolutely brimming with orgasmic after-glow. Very offensive in turian culture.”

He started unbuttoning her top and she moaned as his tongue made contact with her breasts. He hadn’t forgotten this time. She helped him unbutton the bottom of her shirt and gasped as one of his hands moved to join his tongue.

“Pretty sure you’re making that up, but ok. Wouldn’t want to take a chance of offending the entire turian race.” His mandibles spread wide into a grin, and then he promptly buried his head between her breasts.

“Oh, oh fuck, that’s…“ She moaned. “I’m not visiting the battery today. You’re too distracting.”

“Oh?” He moved back just so he could look at her, giving her a very blatant up and down. “Shame. I was just thinking I could make it worth your while, but since you won’t give me the opportunity…” He started to tug her pants down with his free hand, and then his head was moving downwards, and her ability to think about anything that wasn’t that tongue was rapidly disappearing.

“If the council calls and I’m late for it because you’re bending me over the damn gun, it’s your fault,” she moaned.

“I’ll make it worth the wait,” he promised and then – ooh, fuck.

“S-stop, we don’t have any amino b-b-boosters.” She moaned. She really didn’t want him to stop, but she wasn’t taking any chances with her husband’s health.

He pulled away. “Nightstand,” he said, and then his tongue was back there, surrounding her clit, over and over.

She writhed against him and, with great difficulty, glanced at the nightstand where, sure enough, there was a used amino-booster.

He had to have taken it the second she’d turned toward the bathroom.

He’d been planning this. God damn amazing bastard husband.

“Fuck!” She moaned and tugged on his fringe. “Oh God, Garrus…” Another lick, this one up and down the entirety of her slit, and then he was inside and hitting that spot inside of her. She whined, and felt his fingers clenched tight at her sides.

Her thighs trembled and she felt his mandibles quirk out – smiling – and then his tongue was there and his fingers were there too and oh, oh -

She cried out as she came underneath him, squirming. More so after he decided to make the most out of the booster and go for an extra round. She saw the orange flare of Garrus’ omni. “6 minutes. Told you.”

“You are amazing.” She panted. “Fuck. I don’t think I can get off the bed.”

“Well, you’re going to have to.” He climbed back up to nuzzle her face and she felt his erection poking into her side. “Otherwise, you’re not going to get that surprise in the battery.”

“I think I can feel that surprise already,” she murmured, and gave him a squeeze through the tunic that made him jump a bit.

“That’s only part of the surprise.” His eyes glimmered.

“Okay, okay.” She nuzzled his nose. “Don’t suppose you found another booster lying around? Can’t have the Thannix feeling inadequate.”

“Oh,” he chuckled. “I might have found a couple, but…” He whispered. “Not sure you’ve got time. You’re a very busy Captain.”

She pushed him onto his back and unzipped his pants “I’ll make time.” She said, diving down to show him a bit of human creativity as she felt him stab the booster into her arm.

Her tongue swirled around his shaft and he moaned. She sucked down – and his hands were scrambling against the sheets. He was already nearly ready to pop, she thought, and smirked. This wouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

“Uh, Commander?” Joker’s voice boomed through the cabin. She slide Garrus out of her mouth with an audible pop and they both groaned.

“What is it, Joker?”

“Sorry to interrupt, kids, but Liara wants to talk to you. Says it’s important. She’s been waiting in the CIC for about fifteen minutes.”

She groaned. “Tell her I’ll meet her in her office in ten.”

“Roger that.” Joker cut the connection. Or at least she hoped for his sake that he did.

“Sorry.” She groaned. “Looks like we’ve got a strict deadline, now.”

“It’s ok,” he said, and started to rezip, but she knocked his hands away.

“And I always meet my deadline, Mr. Shepard-Vakarian,” she said, and, with that, resumed her task.


	11. Chapter 11: The Honeymoon's Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus and Shepard have to go back to work, but not before they celebrate with their friends.

A few minutes later, she soothed her uniform back on, as Garrus watched her from the bed, basking lazily in a post-orgasmic haze.  
  
“So, how do I look?”  
  
His eyes gave her a sultry once-over, before he stood up and pressed a hand to the side of her face. “Beautiful, as always.”  
  
He leaned in and gave her a kiss.  
  
“Thanks, but I meant more in a do-I-have-turian-baby-batter-on-my-face kind of way.”  
  
“Oh.” He gave her another up and down. “Disappointingly, no.” He flared out his mandibles. “I could change that, if you wanted…”  
  
“Maybe tonight.” His eyes glimmered. “But it might be a bit distracting to our shipmates.”  
  
“I suppose you’re right.” He sighed. “Guess we better get to work before you give me any more ideas.”  
  
“Mmm.” She kissed his nose, which wrinkled under her lips, and smiled. “Guess so. I’ll check up on you around 14:00, for …lunch.”  
  
“Mmm.” He grinned. “I look forward to the …lunch. Pack light.”  
  
She waggled her eyebrows. “You going to join me on the way down?”  
  
He shook his head. “Not unless you want to wait a good ten minutes for me to armor up.”  
  
“Ah, no. I never do like to see you put more clothes on.”   
  
He gave her a startled look and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He returned the squeeze, before walking her to the elevator and leaning forward and…   
  
Ah.   
  
Damn good kisser, he was. Enough to go back for seconds.  
  
A few kisses later, and she was on her own for the first time in – well, in the entire time she’d been married.  
  
She studied the ring on her finger. She debated taking it off, but if the others wanted to talk about it – let them. They weren’t keeping it a secret; on a ship as small as the Normandy, that would have been all but impossible anyway.  
  
She skipped the CIC and went down another floor, rendezvousing with Liara as promised.  
  
Liara was sitting at the edge of her bed, her hands folded around a datapad. As the door opened, Liara’s face lit up with a brilliant smile.  
  
“Hello, Shepard. Or should I call you Commander Shepard-Vakarian, now?”  
  
“Liara. Shepard’s fine, Shepard-Vakarian’s a bit of a mouthful.” She grinned. “Joker said you had something important you wanted to discuss.”  
  
“Well,” Liara waved a datapad. “I have a few leads for the crucible I thought we might go over. And, more importantly…” She grinned. “I thought we could talk about your wedding reception?”  
  
“Asari do receptions?”  
  
“Oh, no.” Liara waved her hand. “But humans do, don’t they? I have always wanted to go to one. They seem very…ornate.”  
  
“Yeah, well, I’ll be sure to help you throw you one for your wedding, Liara.” Shepard grinned as Liara sputtered.  
  
“Shepard, I – I am in the garden of my youth, as it were, and I do not think such – such an event is likely to occur any time soon.”  
  
“What about Fero-”  
  
“Shepard!” Liara put her hand on her forehead. “Let’s talk about your wedding, not mine. Seeing as you decided to get married without any of us present.”   
  
Shepard winced at Liara’s caustic tone. She knew she was going to get a bit of a lecture on that, but she couldn’t regret the way they’d done things.  “Sorry, Liara. It wasn’t because we didn’t trust you - “  
  
“I know that.” Liara pushed the datapad into her hands. “It just…feels like we’re running out of time, doesn’t it?”  
  
“Yeah.” Shepard thumbed the datapad absently. The truth was, they were betting a lot on the crucible actually working – and they still didn’t know what it was or whether it could stop the reapers.   
  
All they knew was that the protheans had wanted to use it – and that it hadn’t worked for them.   
  
“I…I was a bit upset, last night, but I think I understand.” Liara looked away. “You wanted to make sure you had the chance to do it. You had to seize the moment.”  
  
“Yeah.”  Shepard scratched her neck. She was never that good with the emotional stuff. “We just…didn’t want to wait anymore, once we both realized this was what we wanted.”  
  
“I understand.” Liara smiled. “But I am sad I won’t get the chance to see you get married.”  
  
“Hey.” She put an arm around her. “You’re definitively come to our  _adfinitas_.”  
  
Liara gave her a surprised look. “You’re…actually doing that?”  
  
“Yeah. Maybe not the tattoos, but the party at least, for sure.”  
  
Liara laughed. “I’m sure his family will appreciate the gesture. And the ability to grill you with all kinds of questions for hours.”  
  
She groaned. “Are there usually a lot of questions?”  
  
“Tons. It’s considered a bit of a …negotiation, between families. Asari have to prepare for them quite studiously…”   
  
Shepard groaned.   
  
“…But I think Garrus’ family might just make an exception for the woman who saved the galaxy.”  
  
“I get the feeling his dad doesn’t make exceptions for anybody.”  
  
Well…” Liara grinned. “We could throw you a little party, here on the Normandy. To practice, of course.”   
  
“For practice, huh?” Shepard raised an eye brow.  
  
“Shepard, this is the only happy news our crew has had in a long time.” She smiled. “Why not let the crew celebrate?”  
  
“You really want to throw this wedding reception, don’t you?”  
  
“Of course.”  Liara hummed. “I think of you as a sister, Shepard. And from my research,  families frequently throw parties to celebrate nuptials.”  
  
“Alright.” She laughed. “You want to throw a party, go ahead. I’ll even drag Garrus out of the battery for it.”  
  
Liara smiled. “Good. It wouldn’t be much practice if the groom were absent.”  
  
“And…thanks Liara.” Shepard grinned. “I’d be honored to consider you my sister.”  
  
Liara beamed.   
  
\- - -   
  
After talking with Liara, she prepared to make her rounds around the ship. Liara must have had invitations for the party ready to go, because she was barely out of Liara’s office when her omni-tool dinged.  
  
She pulled it up on her omni-tool and blinked in surprise. It was …ornate. 3D  holographic flowers moved in a simulated breeze at the borders. The invitation was in flawless, handwritten calligraphy. She had a feeling Liara had been planning that message for a long time.    
  
Well, if  _adfinitas_  had maids of honor, Liara would be hers. And Traynor. And….Oh hell, she’d have to check with Garrus and see if she could just invite the whole crew. After all, they’d all chosen to be here, with them.   
  
With the invitations and the ring, the secret was out, but to her surprise, the crew made few comments on it. She had caught Kaidan’s wistful expression when he saw her ring and Traynor’s fingers twitched over hers as they talked in the CIC - but other than that, the crew was silent.  
  
After she finished her rounds, she stopped off in the kitchenette, grabbing a protein bar for herself and a dextro set for Garrus. Although neither of them would count the protein bars as their favorite meals, they were fast.   
  
She was half-way to the battery before EDI interrupted her. “Commander Shepard, we have reached our destination. The Quarian envoy has initiated docking procedures with the Normandy.”  
  
She sighed. It would be a quick lunch. Still, at least they’d have a good half hour of peace while the quarian party went through the Normandy’s decontamination chamber.  
   
With no time to spare, she took the last few steps into the battery, which Garrus had left dimmed. “You better not be taking a nap in here.”  
  
“I’d be well within my rights to, the way you kept me up.” He chuckled – and she raised an eyebrow in surprise. Garrus was far, far in the back of the battery, underneath both of the gun’s banks. She leaned over the railing.  
  
“Are you OK down there?”  
  
He stood up, and she bit back a grimace. His face was covered in grease and what she would guess was engine oil.  
  
“Better than OK. Great.” She raised an eyebrow and he glanced down. “Oh. Sorry.”  
  
“So much for the afternoon delight.” He tilted his head. “I’ll explain later. What are you doing down there?”  
  
Garrus Vakarian actually rocked back on his heels in excitement before swinging himself up and over the steps to reach her. “I figured out that if I re-route the secondary power couplings on the Thannix, I can improve our reload speed by about .3%.”  
  
“.3 percent, huh?” She said, delicately scratching behind his fringe.   
  
“ _Yesssss_.” He said and carefully lowered his head onto her shoulder. She wasn’t sure if he was that pleased about the reload boost or the head scratch. With Garrus’ love of math, it was hard to tell. She wasn’t going to argue with him being happy, though, especially when he was doing his best not to leave grease all over her uniform.  
  
…Although, judging by the splotch on her shoulder, he was kind of failing at it.   
  
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her handkerchief, dobbing off bits of grease from his nose and cheek. He gave a happy sigh and leaned in further, kissing her neck.  
  
“Heeey, you need to clean up first.” She chuckled. “Don’t want to get engine gunk on your protein bar, do you?”  
  
“Might improve the flavor.” He muttered, before pulling a towel off of one of the workbenches and wiping off the oil as best he could. She hopped up onto one of the other workbenches, and he raised an eyebrow as she wordlessly held out a dextro bar.   
  
“Not the sort of lunch I thought you’d bring.”  
  
“If you thought I’d make you a home-made bento box, you married the wrong woman, G.”  
  
“I’m not sure what that is, but…” He chuckled and tore open the wrapper. “”I thought, you know, your lunch might ah, be….less  _literal_.”  
  
“I brought that kind of lunch, too.” She finished off her protein bar and dusted off her hands. “But you know, if you’re going to use your lunchtime to have amazing inter-species sex, might as well do it on a full stomach.”   
  
“Practical woman.” He said, between bites. “Knew there was a reason I married you.”  
  
“And here I thought it was the amazing inter-species sex.”  
  
His bar devoured, he crossed the meager space between them and pushed his forehead against her own. “That, too, is one of your amazing talents.”  
  
“Mmm.” She nuzzled his nose with her own. “We don’t have a lot of time,” she whispered, as she started looking for the release seal on his chestplate.  
  
He smirked. “I think we’ve already established that I can perform well under strict deadlines.“  
  
She opened her mouth to reply, but a loud noise silenced her. Both Garrus and Shepard turned in stunned silence as the door opened.  
  
“You two went and got married without me?!  _Bosh'tets!_ ”  
  
Tali'Zorah stomped into the battery and put her hands on her hips.  “You couldn’t wait six more hours?!”  
  
“Hi Tali.”  
  
“Hi Tali.”  
  
“Hello, you  _idiots_.” Tali glowered at them, somehow looking intimidating despite being shorter than them both.  
  
“How did you find out, Tali?”  
  
Tali keyed her omnitool and wordlessly displayed Liara’s ornate invitation. Garrus raised a browplate. “That’s…”  
  
He turned to Shepard. “Please tell me you didn’t decorate that.”  
  
“That’s all Liara.” She nodded. “But you still have to go to to the party.”  
  
Garrus mumbled something under his breath that she purposely ignored as she turned her attention to Tali.   
  
“I’m sorry, Tali, but we didn’t know when we’d be seeing you again.”  
  
“Bosh'tets! We have been together since the beginning – do you think I’m going to abandon the fight now? And you could have called and asked!” Tali threw her hands up in the air and paced to the other side of the room. “I wanted to be a bridesmaid.”  
  
“Aw, Tali…” Shepard put a hand on her shoulder. “We didn’t have any bridesmaids. It was just me and Garrus.”  
  
“That seems even worse!” Tali glanced from Garrus to her, and back again.   
  
“Well, you can still come to our reception.” She grinned. “And if there’s any maids of honor at our  _adfinitas_ , you’ll be one of mine.”  
  
“Uh, Shepard, traditionally we don’t have maids  - “  
  
“Do I get to wear a cute outfit?” Tali interrupted, and Garrus, wisely, shut up after seeing Tali’s skeptical squint.  
  
“Of course.” Shepard nodded. “All your sexiest belts.”  
  
“Well…OK.” She nodded. “Then at least we’ll have that. But you still should have waited.”  
  
“Tali, we weren’t trying to offend - “  
  
Tali cut Garrus off again with a flick of her wrist. “I had 10 months in the engagement pool, and you  _bosh'tets_  had to go and get married at nine.” She shook her head. “Kasumi’s going to have a field day with this.”   
  
“There….was a betting pool? On when we’d get married?”  
  
Tali snorted. “You didn’t know? You’re the only two who have ever been on this ship who didn’t have a bet in the pool. At this point, we thought you just weren’t in on it because it would be unfair.”  
  
Garrus blinked. “I…Wait, ever?”  
  
Tali nodded. “EDI, what’s the pool up to now?”  
  
“20,000 credits.”  
  
“20,000 credits??!” Shepard gawked. “We could have bought a fish VI for that!”  
  
“Or some good dextro food.”   
  
“If you’d held on for another month, we might have had the best dextro buffet in the universe. Now you’ll just have to make due with watching Kasumi spend it.”  
  
Shepard glared. “EDI, is there anyone currently on board the ship who did not have a wager on this?”  
  
There was a momentary pause. “Officer Vakarian and yourself do not have wagers listed in my memory banks.”  
  
“See?” Tali said.   
  
“Damn.” Garrus scratched the back of his head. “Guess they know us better than we do.”  
  
“Well, you know, we have been fighting a war and all, Garrus.” She glared at Tali, who looked away. “Some of us have had their minds focused on more than romance.”  
  
“Which reminds me…” Tali continued to avoid looking at both her and Garrus as she stared at a suddenly fascinating console. “Shala'Raan and Hans'Gerrel wanted to see you. I think it’s urgent.”  
  
Shepard sighed. “Raincheck, Garrus?”  
  
“Yeah.” He folded his long arms around her and kissed her cheek. “And like I said…I’ll make it worth the wait.”  
  
“Uh…” Tali squeaked as Garrus’ hand slipped lower, carressing the small of Shepard’s back. “I’ll be outside.”  
  
“Way to traumatize our best friend, Garrus.”  
  
His hand slipped a little lower as Tali left and they were alone again. “Just trying to make the moment count.”   
  
She kissed his cheek and left, mind replaying all the ways Garrus could possibly make it worth her while.  
  
It was going to be a long meeting.   
  
\- - -   
  
Three hours and several repressed urges to punch quarians later, the Normandy was en route to a Reaper Dreadnought. Despite the upcoming mission, the crew were in good spirits.  
  
Perhaps they should throw parties more often. Their little reception had left most of the crew visibly relaxed.   
  
Even Joker had opted to crawl down from the cockpit. He now sat on one of the chairs in the mess, talking to Garrus about some kind of piloting simulation game.   
  
"Damn fine game.” Garrus was saying, and even though she didn’t have any interest in it, she leaned into his side, enjoying his voice. “The air drag in the Thessia level, though….”  
  
“Oh, I know.” Joker rolled his eyes. “You’ve got to keep the thrust up in that level, or you’ll wind up crashing into Janari before you can say "By the Goddess…”  
  
“I always favor the Turian 42-B wing configuration for that level.” Garrus mandibles fluttered in interest. “Very aerodynamic, helps cut down on wind drag.”  
  
“Yeah, but turian ships guzzle more fuel than the Mako did when Shepard gunned it up that mountain.”  
  
At that point, her eyes dangerously close to glazing over, she decided to mingle. She pressed a kiss to Garrus’ cheek, and headed toward the snack table.  
  
Chakwas was getting a cup of punch and smiled at her.  
  
“Hey Doc.” She smiled. “How are you?”  
  
Chakwas took a sip of her drink. “As good as can be expected.”  
  
“How are we for medical supplies?”  
  
“We’re doing alright, though we should stop off for more dextro medigel next time we’re on the Citadel.” She frowned. “Especially as it sounds like we might be taking a lot of quarians on board.”  
  
Shepard ran her hand down her face. She didn’t regret choosing to go help the quarians – and Tali. However,  the fact that they had decided that now was the best time to try to take their homeworld back was …infuriating.  
  
“But we can talk about that later.” Chakwas grinned. “Let’s talk about you becoming an honest woman.”  
  
“I’m not quite that yet,” she smirked. “But I did get married.”  
  
“Ah, young love.” Chakwas sighed. “I miss that – soldiers are great romantics.”  
  
Chakwas looke across the mses. Shepard turne, and caught   
Adams raising a glass in salute to her. Shepard grinned.  
  
“You know, doc, judging by how Adams has been looking at you, it might not be too late…”  
  
“Oh, hush.” Chakwas waved her suggestion away, but Shepard noted a bit of pink tinging her cheeks.  
  
“Hey, I’m just saying.  Next time I see you, if you’re a little happier and I see there’s a little less serrice ice brandy…well, I won’t tell a soul.”  
  
“Commander.” Chakwas raised an eyebrow. “Whatever made you think I needed to get a man drunk to show him a good time?”  
  
“Damn.” Shepard laughed. “Go for it, doc. Not gonna live forever.”  
  
“I’ll think about it.” Chakwas smiled and motioned toward Adams, who was now in a heated discussion with Joker and Garrus. “Perhaps he can take some tips in romance from that soldier of yours.”  
  
“Garrus?” Her smile faltered. “Uh… James or Cortez or…well, anybody else, really – might be better at that.”  
  
“I don’t know.” Chakwas smirked. “He got you, after all. Perhaps there is something to be said for the awkward but lovable routine…”  
  
Shepard put her head in her hand and groaned. “You…heard all that?”  
  
She had thought the battery was soundproof.  
  
It appeared she was wrong.  
  
“Only most of it.” Chakwas grinned. “Honestly, it kept me and Gardner nearly as entertained as I suspect it kept you and Garrus.”  
  
“Oh, god.”   
  
Chakwas smiled. “Young love is a wonderful thing, Commander. You shouldn’t be embarrassed of being in love with a good-looking soldier.”  
  
“Good-looking? Didn’t know you went that way, Chakwas.”  
  
The good doctor took another sip of what she was beginning to suspect was not just punch and snorted. “I might be an old woman, Shepard, but I’m not blind.”  
  
\- - -  
  
After leaving Chakwas, she moved toward the group playing cards. Kaidan, Cortez and Steve were playing what looked liked Skyllian Five, and all three were grinning like idiots.   
  
“Damn, Lola, first Cortez, now you?” Vega shook his head. “I mean it’s one thing for this  _cabron_  to have been married- “  
  
“Hey!” Cortez laughed. “Watch what you call me.”  
  
“C'mon, Cortez, don’t be so sensitive. My point is, now half the Alliance crew is married. Or was married. Whatever. ” Vega shrugged his shoulders. “Startin’ to feel like an endangered species, us unmarried men.”  
  
“Hey, now.” Kaidan laughed. “We’re still docked in the Citadel. I’m sure the Commander wouldn’t mind if you wanted to go find a lucky lady, Vega.”  
  
“Hey hey hey.” Vega waved his hands. “This guy is  _waaay_  too hot for just one lady. Right, Lola?”  
  
Kaidan took a sip of beer from his bottle and promptly spluttered it. “Uh, Vega, you might not want to joke around about that, the Commander can be pretty - “  
  
Oh, God. Why couldn’t Kaidan have forgotten that conversation?  
  
She opened her mouth to interrupt him and change the subject, but thankfully, Cortez did it for her.  
  
“Well, from one old married to another, congratulations, Commander.” Cortez raised his own beer bottle in a small salute. He smiled, and if it was slightly sad, well, she understood.   
  
She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to be as strong as Cortez was, if she lost Garrus. Cortez held on hope for the future, and kept on fighting in Robert’s memory.  She could only hope she’d never have to face the same situation.  
  
“Thanks, Cortez. As for the rest of you…. Don’t get too carried away.” She raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you guys have something to do tonight after the party? Like say…the supply inventory?”   
  
“Nah.” Vega raised a beer in salute. “We finished the inventory before the party. Need to devote the entire night to celebrating with you and Scars.”  
  
“Just be careful, Vega.” She chuckled as she started to walk away. “These two are better Skyllian players than those refugees on the Citadel.”   
  
\- - -  
  
“Shepard!” Tali grabbed her arm as soon as she left Kaidan. “Shepard! Thank…Thank you for marrying a dextro.” She raised a shaky hand with a small cocktail. “Aaannd providing a free bar!”  
  
“Tali.” Shala'Raan shook her head. “This behavior isn’t…”  
  
“Shepard and Garrus are my…my buddies!” She leaned heavily on Shepard’s shoulder. “So I have to be here! Right Shepard?”  
  
“Uh, sure, Tali, I - “  
  
“I’m gonna be her maid of honor.” Tali bent her head, wobbily chasing the straw in her fancy drink. “Get a fancy dress and everything. With fancy belts.”  
  
Shala Raan crossed her arms. “That’s assuming we survive, Tali. Need I warn you we will be approaching a Geth dreadnaught in less than twenty four hours?”  
  
“I’ll be fine.” Tali waved her fellow admiral away and pulled Shepard toward the bar for a refill. “Sooo, Shepard, telll me….” She giggled. “What is Garrus like?”  
  
“You know Garrus, Tali. Funny, passionate, stubborn…”  
  
“Nooo….” Tali shook her head. “In bed, Shepard.”  
  
“….Tali?”  
  
“He looks like he would be fun.” She giggled. “Strong. Bouncy?”  
  
“Tali!” She was fairly sure Tali did not have a great grasp of turian …structure, if she thought any part of their bodies was …bouncy.   
  
“What? He’s got nice legs…I bet he can go all night…” With great concentration, Tali plucked her straw out of one cocktail and placed it in another. It took her two attempts.  
  
Shepard made a note to cut Tali off after this drink. “Tali, that’s - “  
  
“Good for you.” She raised her cocktail, spilling her straw and a bit of dextro liquor onto the bar. “I’m so proud of you, Shepard. Riding that turian!”  
  
Shepard glanced at Tali’s rapidly dwindling cup and decided she had had more than enough.  
  
“Okay, c'mon Admiral Tali, let’s get you back to the party before you cause any trouble…”  
  
“Ok, Shepard!” Tali, without warning, grabbed Shepard and hugged her tight. “I love you.”  
  
“Tali, I -”  
  
She heard footsteps at the door and prayed it wasn’t Liara or Kaidan. She would never, ever live this down if -   
  
“Am I interrupting something?” Garrus drawled, as he moved over to the bar.   
  
“Garus!” Tali let go of her death grip on Shepard’s lungs and threw herself at Garrus instead. “I love you, too.”  
  
Garrus stared. “Uuuuuuhhhh…”  
  
“I think she might have had enough.” Shepard gingerly stepped around Garrus and removed Tali’s drink from her hand. Tali was caught up enough in the embrace that she simply tightened her grip on Garrus, instead of the glass.  
  
“I’ll say.” He held up a quite empty bottle of turian brandy. “Emptied an entire bottle. It’d take me weeks to get through that.”  
  
“Garrrus….” Tali giggled. “We were just talking about you…”  
  
“Tali, no.”  
  
Garrus raised a brow-plate.  
  
“Shepard  _likes_  you.”   
  
“I….may have figured that out, Tali.”  
  
“Eventually.” Shepard smirked.  
  
“She thinks you’re  _bouncy_.” Tali giggled.  
  
Garrus looked puzzled. “Bouncy?”  
  
“Youuuu knowww…” Tali giggled. “During sex. Boingy boingy!”  
  
Garrus tilted his head toward her.  
  
“I never said that.” Shepard said.  
  
“She said it with her eyes.” Tali giggled.  
  
“….She’s gonna have a hell of a hang-over, isn’t she?” Garrus said, attempting but failing to extricate himself from Tali’s deathgrip.  
  
Tali’s eyes narrowed. With one surprisingly graceful move, she let go of Garrus with one hand and grabbed Shepard, hugging both of them.  
  
She hiccuped. “Worth it. So worth it.”  
  
\- - -  
.   
By the time they managed to detach themselves from Tali and get her back into the mess hall, Liara was clinking a spoon against a glass.   
  
“Is this what passes for human wedding music?” Garrus winced. “If so…I’ve heard better.”   
  
“No. She’s tying to get everyone to shut up.”  
  
“Oh. Why doesn’t she just say that?”  
  
She glared at him, Garrus shrugged.  
  
Liara stood up. “According to my research, it is time for the  traditional first dance between the bride and the groom.”  
  
Shepard tuned out the rest pf Liara’s speech and began to catalog all the ways that she could kill her, sister or not.  
  
“This oughtta be good.” Vega stage-whispered, hitting Cortez on the arm. Shepard gave them with a powerful death glare. Both at least had the decency to look uncomfortable about getting caught.  
  
“C'mon, Shepard! Ride that turian!” Tali pumped her alarm up and down exuberantly and clapped. She winced. She made a note to try to avoid having Tali and alcohol in the same room. They clearly didn’t mix well.  
  
Garrus took her hand. “Do we have to do this?”  
  
“Pretty sure Liara is going to flay us with her brain if we don’t.”  
  
“Ah.” He put his hands on her hips and Tali let out an extremely enthusiastic cheer. She heard another “Whooo!” and was surprised to see Traynor high-fiving Tali.   
  
Damn. Everyone  _really_  was in on the pool, weren’t they?  
  
She waited for the music.  With Liara making the selection, it was bound to be something sappy and romantic. Probably something from _Vaenia_.  
  
But hell, at least it wasn’t Garrus. Garrus would play _Die for the Cause_. She loved the man and all, but there were appropriate wedding songs and imperial anthems weren’t one of them.  
  
The music started, and they both stared at one another.  
  
Liara had  _not_  gone for slow and sappy.  
  
In fact, she hadn’t gone for what would pass for traditional at a human wedding reception at all.  
  
Instead, club music from Flux – which brought back other memories – pounded through the speakers.  
  
Garrus mandibles fluttered in the turian version of a nervous smile. She laughed, and he grabbed her close, swaying badly and completely out of time with the music.  
  
“This isn’t a slow song.” Vega said. “What are they doing?”  
  
“Hey, it’s their wedding.” Traynor clapped. “Let them dance how they want to.”  
  
Shepard chuckled and kissed Garrus’ chin, which produced a cheer from their quarian cheerleader. “Have fun yet?”  
  
“Sure, but…” His eyes bore down into her hers. “Not as much as during the after-party, I think.”  
  
“The after-party, hmmm?” She raised an eyebrow. Behind him, Cortez had dragged Vega onto the dance floor as other people slowly decided to join in.  
  
“Yeah.” He nuzzled the top of her head. “You, me….alone….”   
  
She heard another giggling Tali cheer behind her, followed by Traynor calling them both “cute.”  
  
“What, don’t want Tali and Traynor cheering you on in the sack?” She raised an eyebrow.  
  
“Definitively not.” He smirked. “I already have a woman who cheers for me when I -”  
  
“Smile!” Tali wobbled unsteadily in front of them, her omni-camera flashing.  
  
She and Garrus froze, intimate moment officially ruined.   
  
“Awwwww!” Tali giggled, oblivious. “You guys are so cute.”  
  
“Hey Tali!” Kaidan held out a hand. “Wanna dance?”  
  
“Of course!” Tali stumbled toward Kaidan. Kaidan gave Shepard a nod that made her a bit thankful for his presence, uncomfortably remembered conversations and all.  
  
“Why do I get the feeling Kaidan just tried to save Tali from us?”  
  
“Uh…” She laughed. “Remember that conversation we had yesterday? About Kaidan and Liara on the first Normandy? Well, he remembers that.”  
  
“Ah.” He chuckled. “I see.”   
  
“Mmm.” She leaned into him as the song ended. “That or he just wanted to give us some alone time.”  
  
“Now that I can get behind…” He said, wrapping his hands around her waist.   
  
“After the party,” she whispered, and smirked as she felt his hands tighten.   
  
“A-After?”  
  
“Yeah.” She squeezed his waist and was rewarded with a soft, pleased purr.   
  
“How much long do we have to stay?”  
  
“Until the party ends.”  
  
“Sure I can’t faint into the cake?”  
  
“Positive.” She ran her hand along his cowl and heard his purr deepen. “Patience.”  
  
“But….” He ran a hand down her arm. “Imagine how  _good_  I would feel inside you-”  
  
“Are you enjoying the party?” Liara bounced toward them, practically beaming. “I tried to set it up to be very accurate in its depiction of human cultural traditions.”  
  
“We are.” She said, although she wasn’t feeling very patient anymore.   
  
“Starting to get tired, though.” Garrus faked a yawn, and Shepard bit her lip to keep from laughing.   
  
“Ah.” Liara had a faint blush on her cheeks, and Shepard was positive that Liara knew exactly what Garrus was trying to do. “Well, with the Geth Dreadnought coming up so quickly, perhaps you two should sneak off.”  
  
“Yeah.” Garrus nodded. “I think that’s for the best.”  
  
“I have something that can help with that.” Liara reached under the cabinet and pulled out a pair of quite meticulously and colorfully painted cans.  Each appeared to have several streamers trailing out of them.  
  
“What is that?”  
  
“I read that in human courting, the couple must wear colorful streamers and cans to escape to the honeymoon.”  
  
“Uh…” Garrus was attempting, but failing, to  _not_  look mortified as Liara carefully tied a can and some streamers onto his fringe.   
  
“You know Liara…” Shepard said, as Liara tied a can to her wrist. “Generally people put these on the vehicles that people leave in.”  
  
Liara’s mouth quirked into what was a bit too sinister to properly be called a smile. “Generally people wait for the reception to end before they run off for the honeymoon, I’m told.”  
  
“Point made.” Shepard sighed. “You’re not going to let us leave without mortifying ourselves, are you?”  
  
“Nope.” Liara grinned. “But I will prevent the pictures from making it to the extranet.”  
  
She sighed. “Ready, Garrus?”  
  
“Right behind you.” He grinned and grabbed her hand, and the two left, amid the happy shouts and peals of laughter of their friends.


	12. Chapter 12: Future Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now our conclusion. Garrus and Shepard talk about what they'd like to do next.

Several rounds of blowing off steam later, she wrapped her arms around her husband.

“Mmm,” he purred into her hair. “You know, you humans have some very… _colorful_ bonding traditions.“

“Did you have fun?” She asked, stroking the soft jut of his keelbone.

“Of course.” He chuckled. “Although the after-party was much, much better.”

“Mmm.” She moved her hand lower, stroking the sensitive skin of his unplated stomach. Garrus instantly turned into a purring, happy puddle of turian. She moved to kiss his stomach and was rewarded by his purring turning into a soft groan. “Well, we are a good team.”

“The best, I think.” He ran his talonsthrough her hair with a grin. “You know, I was a bit concerned. I read that human females typically had a decreased desire for sex after marriage…”

“False.” She chuckled. “You shouldn’t believe everything on the extranet.” Then, to prove her point, she leaned lower, and -

“Thank the spirits,” He groaned. “Although I’m pretty sure you’re going to break me at this rate.”

“I doubt that.” She looked up, giving him a grin as she rubbed a hand along his thigh. “You’re gonna have to get used to it. Though I will give you a break when the kids come along…” She slid a finger over him, feeling him rapidly harden against her finger-tips. “Gotta make sure you get your rest for all those four am feedings.”

“Mmmm.” He groaned, his hand affectionately tumbling through her hair as she bent down for another taste. “I think I told you turians can get by without a lot of sleep, Shepard.”

“Oh?”

She felt strong arms gather her up, pulling her toward his mouth for a kiss.

“Yeah.” One of his large hands glided down his side. “Which means I can handle living with mommy and junior… _and_  keeping them both happy.”

“Mmmm.” She kissed him, gently cupping his mandibles. “Garrus?”

“Yeah?” She shivered at the look in his eyes – warm, intense, happy.

“I love you.”

“I know. Hell if I know why, but I know.” His mandibles flared out. “I…L-love you, too.”

“I know.” She ran a hand down the spines of his fringe. “You don’t need to say it back every time, either – I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable.”

“Shepard, you might make me nervous, but…” His nose nudged her neck. “Like I said, you never make me uncomfortable. Besides, I like to think I’m making Saren spin in his grave by saying it.”

She snorted.

“If you listen  _veerrrry_  closely, you can hear his spirit throwing a hissy fit about human aggression as we speak. Although…He was right about that. Human females are _very_ aggressive.” He sighed dramatically. "I was completely unable to defend myself against your onslaught of seduction.”

“We have to be aggressive. Damn turians are always so focused on duty and calibrating even when they know how damn sexy they are…” She kissed the tip of his crest and he made a soft groan. “You’re lucky I don’t jump your bones twenty-four seven.”

“Turians can get by without much sleep, Shepard, but I do need at least a solid hour or two.” His hand glided down her cheek. “The other twenty-two, though, well… Turians  _will_  do anything to advance the cause.”

“The cause?” She laughed. “And what, exactly, is the cause here?”

“Making Commander Shepard the happiest woman in any fleet serving in council space.”

“Just council space?” She slapped his shoulder. “I think you could do better than that.”

“Well, I figured we’ll start low and work our way through the more exotic locales later.” His mandibles flared wide into a grin. “Bet we’ll have a lot of vacation time built up when this is over. We’ll have sex in all sorts of interesting places - Ilos, Rannoch, Virmire…”

“…Noveria?”

He frowned. “I don’t like the cold, Shepard.”

“I think I could keep you warm.” She traced a finger along the edge of his scarred mandible. “You, me, a roaring fire, an open bottle of dual-chiralty wine, and a snowstorm conveniently blocking all communications….”

“Okay, Port Hanshan too. You know, I am the universe’s luckiest man.” He sighed. “If I die after all that, I’ll die happy.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but the uneasy silence following lingered between them for a moment.

“Don’t talk like that, Garrus. You can’t die.” She shuddered as she closed her eyes, keeping her hands on him. She didn’t want to think of a universe without Garrus. “I can’t do this alone…”

“Oh Shepard…” His voice was thick, sub-vocals almost cracking. “I’ll try. Spirits, I’ll try my damn best but…don’t you die, Shepard. It’s not just me who…”

“Okay.” She kissed him. “No more Atlas punching.” She shivered, running a hand over his own. “We’re both gonna live through this, and we’re gonna adopt so many babies at the end of this, Garrus. So  _damn_ many babies.”

If her voice cracked, he didn’t call attention to it.

“Oh…” His voice was cracking too, as he nudged his nose up against hers. “You don’t know how badly I want that.”

“Yeah, I do. And that’s why we’re gonna have it.” She smiled and kissed his nose. “We just gotta survive this first.”

“With you…” He sighed. “I feel like we actually have a chance.”

\- - -

The next time she was on the citadel, she did not lose her temper. Not even as she was stuck, inevitably, behind an asari who spent fifteen minutes deciding which flavor of Tummy Tingling Tuchanka sauce to buy.

Instead, she thumbed her wedding ring and reminded herself that she had a husband to go home to and a future well worth sticking out supply runs for.

When she finally hit the docks, Garrus stilll rushed over to her, and his words said “I’m glad to see you,” but what he meant was “ _I love you_.” Their rings clinked together as they held one another’s hands. She smiled as he pressed his forehead to hers before telling her about the news from Palaven.

People was still dying, and the universe was still in trouble. They were still only one thing in the universe going right among hundreds, if not thousands, of things going wrong.

But in the end, she thought, as he held her close to his heart, this was enough to live for.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at long last, we've reached the end! Apologies it took so long to upload -- haven't had a lot of spare time. Thanks to all who voted for this, and thanks again to the MEKM peeps who nominated/voted for this fluffy fic. I loved writing it, and I hope you all did too. :) 
> 
> Brief translation/author notes:
> 
> Adfinitas is the word I made up for Turian weddings. It’s a latin word which means “relationship by marriage” or “affinity.” In my head-canon, adfinitas are basically huge wedding parties where the families of the bride/groom make sure that the other is a suitable family to “ally” with. These are mostly a hold-over of the Unification wars, and the “alliance” is mostly symbolic, but it’s still common to ask lots of questions over family history, career, temperament, etc. 
> 
> Bracatus - Solana accuses Garrus of “going bracatus” by marrying a human. Bracatus is a latin word with a lot of meanings, among them foreign, wearing trousers, and, hilariously, feather-bedded. Solana is asking him if he’s going soft. 
> 
> In lectulo - Solana says Garrus must only know Shepard “in lectulo.” A lectulo is a small couch or a bed in latin, so… Sol is basically saying Garrus must only know her for sex. XD


End file.
